Elder Samuel Burge: Bald Eagles, Freebies, Fireworks, & Gunnin’ on the 4th!!!

Hello,

Sorry to hear that your 4th of July wasn't as good as you would've liked. Sounds like you guys did some pretty alright things. I had an awesome Independence Day- I got fed so much food it was ridiculous! So in the morning we went to our ward's pancake breakfast, and I jokingly said that the only thing to make this 4th the best is if I saw a bald eagle... And as chance would have it a pair of bald eagles flew over and around the church house! I got some pictures- it was the best 4th of July breakfast I've ever had!

We spent the evening with the assistants, chilled in the mission office for like an hour or so with Elder Baxter and his companion, Elder Call while the A.P.s did some paperwork. It's a pretty rare occurrence for missionaries to make it into the mission office so we feel pretty privileged. We also went to the mission home (which is about just as rare) and had burgers with some elders and President Morby. It's official that I'm slowing *gunnin' to the top!~

After that we all walked to the Oak Hills Park and got to watch the fireworks! It was a really good show, and we got to listen to a ton of *freebies and the firework show was really good! (Watching the fireworks made me a bit trunky though). I took quite a few pictures, but it's hard to get any good pictures of fireworks. After that we migrated back to our car and drove home.

We finally got moved back into the Albert's house this past Friday, which is good. It's nice to be in a clean house again, but I think I'll miss having the additional company of the assistants. I now have air-conditioning again though, so I'm definitely not complaining. It's cooled off quite a bit though this past week though, which is good.

So the funniest thing happened to me at dinner with this family in our ward the other night. The Lofgrin's (the family we were eating with) invited a friend to dinner with us who was a member, and as we were talking he made some pretty funny comments about how it's almost mandatory that you have a tattoo if you live in Tooele, and it turns out that his brother lives in Stansbury Park. Bryan's brother just so happens to be our home-teacher! Brother King's brother runs a little bed-and-breakfast in Portland, and I thought it was crazy how small of a world it is.

Well, I hope things are going good back at home. Thanks for all the pictures and the updates on everything. I hope that you all have a good week! Tell Chuck and Collette congrats for me on them going to the temple!

Love always,

Elder Samuel A. Burge

Elder Burge's Missionary Dictionary

* "Gunning" (V.) - The act of doing/saying things to persuade President to like you more so he'll give you leadership positions, i.e. being an assistant. The term "gunner" denotes one who guns excessively.

* "Freebies" (N.) - Music that is not approved in which we sneakily get to listen to because it's beyond our control. i.e., music playing at restaurants, out of other people's cars, at firework shows.