My new companion is Elder Thomas from Alaska!

Hey everyone,

I've been waiting for preparation day all week so I could read about how Ben was doing adjusting to the normality of everyday life! It's exactly what I thought it was going to be- he's afraid to listen to music, watch movies and television, etc. I'm glad to hear that he's getting back into computers so quickly, and that he's enjoying it. Glad he finally fixed the loose cord plug on the guitar, I was always meaning to fix that but I just never got around to it. I bet Silas and Ben enjoy playing around on the guitars with each other.

It's still really strange to see him back home. I mean, it's just been such a long time since I've seen him. To see him with everyone is taking me time to adjust to.

Things here have been quite a change-up; we had a five-week transfer so yesterday was when transfer meeting was being held. We got the call on Saturday afternoon that Elder Baxter was being transferred out of Wilsonville! It was actually really sad to see him go, I really bonded with him in the past few months. He was transferred to the Cedar Mills zone (which is somewhere in-between Beaverton and Portland) to be a zone leader. He's also been transferred within the new mission boundaries so he's super excited about staying in the Oregon Portland mission (hopefully). He was going to be furious if he didn't get his departing interview with President Morby!

My new companion is Elder Thomas from Alaska! He's pretty awesome so far, so I think this will be a good transfer. He's been out about 20 months, so he's hoping to end his mission in this area. He's really cool, worked as a fisherman for a few months outta' the year for about three years before his mission. He's got some pretty classic Alaskan qualities so it's pretty funny! He's really good at teaching and with talking to people so he'll do good work out here. It's made me a little bit nervous/anxious though, being the authority on what work going is happening in our area. We taught a lesson with a recent convert the night we got here, so we didn't have time to really prepare anything. We weren't really on the same wavelength when we were teaching, so I feel like I didn't do as well as I could have. He did a really good job though, his experience shows through in his teaching.

Susan is doing well, we've had a tougher time setting anything up with her. Her life's just got a lot going on right now so she's been very busy.

For transfers yesterday, we went into Portland with Elder Hendrix and his family to this hotdog stand downtown. Elder Hendrix trained Elder Baxter and, since this was his last transfer meeting, wanted to spend the day with him before he left back home. It was really good, and really fun. I got to see a lot of my friends from the MTC at the transfer; every sister from our MTC district is already training because of all the sisters coming into the area! It was really interesting to see, but they're all doing well.

Well, I hope everything is going good back home. I miss you all everyday and I love you all.

Hope you all have a great week.

-Elder Samuel Burge

There goes my dad out the front door!!!

Where is that hot dog stand?

My new companion Elder Thomas