02/20/2012

HEY!!

Happy Monday everyone! Its a day I look forward too.

Thanks for the updates on everyone mom and dad. So great to hear about all the girls and the kiddos, about the things every one is doing. Very good to hear about that all. I pray for you all every day.

Questions first so I dont get to the end of the email and see that im out of time. sorry about that there is just so much to write about I just forget about the questions that are asked. But ok. My apartment is decent. The last one we were in was nicer. We live on the 5th floor of a 6th story building so climbing the stairs at the end of the day is kind of a pain. But hey, its not like crossing the plains. The inside is barren. There are lots of windows but there are super tinted so people cant see in. but its nice because you can open them and have the wind cool the apartment down. It rains a ton here and the windows arent sealed with anything, so the tracks the windows run on, fill with water and then it spills over the edge, and floods our apartment. On the 5th floor. didnt think that was possible. The kitchen is ok. The sink doesnt work it just drips. before it dripped very little, then I kind of fixed it and now it drips a lot. haha i think we are going to have to call the plumber. My bed is nice and we have mosquito nets so thats good. My room where I keep my things is big. My bathroom is solid. Good shower too. There is a laundry company just right by our building that we take our laundry to. Its about 4 dollars for everything. Not bad. they do a really good job with my shirts too. We get food SO much. This place is still the coast but its a lot nicer than esmeraldas, so people are still really nice like coastal people but they have more money and can give more food. Its a pain! I mean its good and i like it, but I am ALWAYS full. Almost to the point of throwing up full. The ward is great! It just recently got made from a branch into a ward, so everyone is excited to work and help us out. The bishop is the man. He is really organized, he has good leaders that surround him that magnify there callings, and he speaks very directly. He is maybe 30, with a cute little family. His little boy always brings me oreos, every time I see him cuz I gave him a bunch of tootsie rolls and a couple of air heads from the package you sent. Its about connections and networking, right mom? :) The ward has about 200 people assist every week, which is way strong. Lots of really good families. The bishop pushes hard to get temple trips in every month and a half. They just went to Guayaquil and they are already planning the next one. That is so great. And almost everyone went. Filled a couple buses. The other missionaries are a stones throw away from our house. well, never tried it but its pretty close. Thats really nice. We eat lunch together every day so we are always talking and we know eachothers investigators. its super handy. The ward mission leader has his mission call to Lima Peru. He is basically a missionary and accompanies us a lot. He does his job and makes our easier. Santo Domingo is the province that La Concordia is now a part of. The main city is called Santo Domingo, but we are in La Concordia. A city of about 40,000 i think? I think i heard someone say that. Anyway, the majority of the people that live here work in the fields that are a little bit outside of the town, harvesting Palm oil. THere is a refinery about 20 minutes away. Not quite sure what they use it for but its big here. Its inland about an hour and half from the beach, but still has the feel of the coast. Today we went to a forest reserve. It was pure jungle. Straight like Emperors new groove with all sorts of weird looking bugs, swarms of nats and cool plants. supposedly there was suposed to be animals but we didnt see any.

This week went really fast. Probably the fastest one of the change. It went really well too with quite a bit of success.  With the elders before me, the first week I was here, we baptized those who were ready and then looked at the people we had to teach and there was no body. But, this week, I actually felt like we have solid people who we are teaching, a bunch of contacts that we can fall back on, and full agenda just about every day. This week we didnt really do that much contacting because we had appointments with investigators or contacts. Finally starting to see a little bit of growth/success. we have a couple of baptisms lined up. But a couple of frustrations. So we are working with a lady, a reference we got, her name is Isabel. She got married about 40 years ago in a small little town, back when they didnt keep good records, so now she doesnt show up in the Ecuadorian registry. supposedly the civil registry where she got married was burned down a week after they got married so the records were lost. She lives with her husband but they just basically share the roof to sleep under, nothing more. But, after all the work we have done, and the desire she has shown, now the assistants say she cant get baptized but there is no proof that she is married.. UH! Frustrating. But, we are going to try and find some sort of paper from somewhere.

Also, quick story. We were looking for a reference, and knocked on this ladies door. we contacted her, shared the first lesson quickly, and left her with a pamphlet. We bounced and kept looking for the reference. Well we come to find out that she is friends with a member, Hermana Ana Bella, who, is the female bishop in the ward. always the first to help, donate, serve, show up. Plus she cooks really good and makes shakes that are really good. anywy, we went back with Ana Bella to visit her. We got close to the house, and this lady, Digna was outside running around screaming for help. We asked how we could help. She said the wind had blown her tin roof off.  A massive storm was rolling in at the moment, in fact right when we got there, it was just starting. anyway, us, and the neighbor climbed up on the roof and fixed her roof. There was no way that the short neighbor could have done it without us, and the little old lady couldnt have done. We fixed the roof in the rain, right before it started to poor. We got down, went in and taught about the book of mormon. she cried and said that she knows god sent us there in that moment to help her. She´ll read the book of mormon, she is Pilas. (a word used here that means smart, knows what she is doing) Anyway, I was amazed, looking back on the experience as to how we were guided there too. Just the small little things that happened before we went, that made it so we showed up right at the right time. Truly we were guided that night.

we are having success. all is well and we are keeping on in the work of the Lord.. as are you all! I love Him and I know He lives. 

JAGE

Here are some pictures from last P-Day.

02/13/2012

HEY HEY!

Hola from the La Concordia, Santo Domingo. 89 degrees, 100 percent humidity, Grey skies, 100 percent chance of rain, tonight, low in the mid 70´s. 

I got the package that you sent with the candy, the talks from the andrews, and Josh´s film! So great to get it all. I was so excited to get Josh´s film, that I completely forgot about the ipod. I went back to the package to dig for the Ipod, and it couldnt be found. I looked at the package, and there was a box knife slit, and Ecuadorian tape covering it up. They robbed it! and I didnt even see it coming..(name that quote Josh haha)

But thanks for what arrived! The candy is always great to receive and Sister Andrew's talk was awesome to read. They are so great. Too bad about the ipod. I am going to try and find an ipod cord here, so I can download music from the church website. We´ll see..

Dad and mom. Im glad you made it back safely. Scary about that guy that was making threats. Thats nuts. Glad to hear you had fun.

Dad thanks for the study you shared with me. I love thinking about all the intricacies and details about the scriptures. It  just makes them come to live and make them seem so much more real. I keep forgetting my journal, but this week I studied the bread of life, and living water. I was into it all week, finding new references the analogy used of eating, and drinking. 3 Nephi 12:6, is a great verse that sums it all it really. "Blessed are those who do hunger and thirst after righteousness. For they shall be FILLED with the Holy Ghost." All righteousness stems from Jesus Christ. 

Also, thanks for the advice about switching things up. We will talk about that in weekly planning session soon we will have. We have a lot of refereneces that we have received and we are trying our best to find them. The only problem is finding them. The directions they give us are something like this. "Go to the gas station. From there go 4 blocks towards the lightstop. then take a left and go a long ways until you come to a wall with a bunch of graffiti on it. there is also a small street store there by. Ask them to direct you to the green house. When you get to the green house, its not that one. Keep going a little bit further. Underneath the mango tree, (there are more mango trees than there are people here), there is a guy in a hammock, always. His name is Vicente. Ask him to tell you how to get to Juan´s house." And then the guy in the hammock gives us a similar set of directions. They give us a number too, but everyones phones gets robbed so people are getting numbers changed constantly. Its quite fun trying to find people but also frustrating when we dont find them. 

The biggest problem we are facing right now is people that just have no hope. They dont care enough to put in the effort to change or have a better life. For example, we spoke with a cute little mother, with a few kids. She did what everyone does within the first ten minutes, tell us all of there hopes, dreams, wishes desires, fears, sins, and all there problems. We just have to listen. She told us that she has a lot of problems with her and her husband that at one point in time they were close to separating. She said that she has tried to change things, but the only reason she stays is to help raise her kids. We cried together, and then shared the proclamation, The Family, with her, a couple scriptures and really just tried to give her hope more than anything. She was glad we came, and I feel like she will try to start progressing. But, its hard here in the coast. I try not to tell stories of people until they start progressing. Its really easy to find here, and teach, but to help people progress is the hardest part. 

Maybe for a week, we can get a list of inactives from Bishop and visit maybe 2 or 3 a day. I dont know but you gave me alot of good ideas to try and mix things up to try and have more success. We´ll give her a whirl. 

Concerning what you shared about lifting those that are week, I found out that Elder Pineda is now District Leader in my last district. It was really good to hear that, especially knowing what he was like when he first came to Esmeraldas. Apparently he is working hard now, that he has the confidence of His Zone Leaders and of President. I can honestly say though, I did nothing. We just worked. Through us working hard, the Lord blessed us both. He opened some eyes. The only thing we did was be obedient and work. But, I dont know, It was just good to hear that. 

Crazy that everyone is coming home now. Also crazy to think that Lars and Cusick and Mooner are coming up on a year and Im coming up on 6 months. VOLANDO!!! (flying) 

Sarah, Linds, Lar, Marie, Lan, Josh. I love you all.

JAGE

(thanks for the email dad. I love the details, and thanks for keeping me posted.)

02/12/2012

Hola!

Hearing about hawaii brings back a lot of fun memories! How much fun did we have on maui? goodness that was a blast. I remember it pretty well! I remember Josh and I bought a football the first day. It was one of those foam ones that when it gets wet, it has the perfect weight to size ratio and you can almost put it into orbit. We were on the beach about 75 yards apart, or so it seemed, hucking it back and forth. We played catch for hours, and got burned SO bad. We ignored the sunscreen warnings from mom, and paid the consiquence. HA! Also, jumping off the cliff that was there close, watching the whales, the food and almost all of it. Great trip. Glad you guys are having fun. 

This week was a good week. We found about 3 new families and we actually have a programa now. (programa: the people who we are working with.) One family is super hard to get a hold of. They have a little nursery they run out of there house. When I told them what dad does they were way excited and we had something to talk about at first. It was a great way to get to know them.. The dad of this family drives a moto taxi on the side. (its a three wheeled scooter with seats enough for 3 people or 4 missionaries. haha) ill try and send pictures of one. they are super fun. Also, another family we found is of 6. they are super kind and all the kids are great. The dad has a mechanic shop he runs out of his house too that he has had for 30 years. All of his kids help him with it, including the girls. The girls know more about cars and how to fix them than I do, I swear. Anyway, great families. The only problem is that we have been in Santo Domingo for the past 4 days. La Concordia, where we are, is about an hour outside of Santo Domingo. Just a little city of about 20,000. But it sits right on the border of the province of Santo Domingo and Esmeraldas. The city currently belongs to Esmeraldas, and I guess they arent doing anything to support the city. They are a lot of resources in La Concordia so I guess its pretty wanted. But, This weekend there was a vote to switch to Santo Domingo. So, we talked about it with President. The army came in on Wednesday to keep things under control but people were still saying that it was going to get crazy. So president sent us to Santo Domingo from Thursday to this morning. Church was cancelled and it was expected to be WW3 here, with people burning in the streets, cars getting flipped and buildings blowing up. But, just like everything else that gets hyped up, nothing happened. The only thing that happened is that we basically abandoned our investigators for the week. But, President told us to do it so we did. Santo Domingo won and people are happy here. Oh well, I know the Lord looked out for our investigators and I hope they have been reading the Book of Mormon and praying. 

We had an interesting experience this past week. We were contacting and contacted into a DEEP catholic family. They were very welcoming and kind. We talked for a bit and then talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We got to baptism and the dad started into some big theory of his, how when people get baptized, and then after, they sin, they are mocking God. Clearly there is a lack of understanding of the Atonement in almost every one we talk with. But, he started to get angry and started to tell us that the way that we baptize, and work, is wrong. He said, "I am not going to get baptized until Jesus Christ himself comes knocking and says, all is well, you can now get baptized.(basically)" We let him rant for a little bit and Elder Rogers and I were both grinning at eachother as he finished. we both knew what needed to be said. I then told him that we as missionaries bring the truth, and that we speak directly with every one so that they can know exactly what they need to do, but that we do it with love. I then told him that we are representatives of the Savior, and that we are guided and directed by Him, through the spirit to those who are ready. I testified that as Representatives of Him, we knocked his door for a reason, to invite him to do what Jesus Christ himself would invite him to do. I said, "He has knocked your door. If you are ready and willing, here we are to help you. If not, fine, there are people waiting and ready to do what he has commanded." I dont think I have ever spoke more directly with any one in my life, or testified stronger, not to mention that my spanish was on. I felt the spirit so strong and as Elder Rogers testified as well, we did all we could. They were left speechless and didnt say anything. We knew they were upset a little bit but I was not going to leave his home without him knowing that his door had been knocked. They didnt accept for a return appointment, but we left them with a pamphlet and our number. They might have taken offense, but we testified and invited, in a kind but very direct way. 

Not much else happened this week. Just visiting our investigators and trying to help them progress. Working in other missionarie's sectors for a long period of time is fun, but frustrating too. It was alright though. I learned a lot from the missionaries we stayed with. It was a good time but I'm glad to get back to work in our sector. 

I didnt get the package this week, or the letter dad. Likely this coming week. Thanks for sending them I cant wait. Thanks for the prayers, thoughts, emails, and love. Good to hear from you. Les Amo muchisimo!

Elder Burr

01/30/2012

Mi Querida Familia y amigos, Hello! What a week its been. I'm sure its been a good week for all of you too. Its always good to get emails and letters. Thanks so much. 

Thanks for the letter from Brock. He is the man and I'm sure he is doing work in Brazil.  There were a couple Brazilians in my last zone and they always talked about going on mini missions with the missionaries and having tons of success. I bet he is having a great time. What he said about handing out pamphlets to his companion was awesome! Kicking tail and taking names sounds like. Send him and Blake and Syd some love and thanks from Elder Burr.

This week was actually really similar to what Brock was doing. We had done some clean up work and followed through on some baptisms that were remaining from the previous district leader. It was good to have them experience baptism. It was a great experience for those that we baptized these past two weeks and a great experience for us. Its amazing how fast you get to know someone as a missionary, and grow to love them. You know their problems, fears, desires and everything in between. Its overwhelming sometimes because you just want them to invest themselves completely in the gospel, and let the Savior and his teachings help them. I have seen that these past two weeks, with people taking the crowning step towards experiencing what the atonement is. 

But, after those baptisms finished up, and all was said and done, the amount of contacting and finding new people that the previous elder did was almost zero. We contacted so many people this week and tried so hard to get references from the members. We have a couple people lined up in the works but nothing serious as of right now. We are busting it hard. Elder Rogers is the man. He testifies hard and keeps the lessons focused, but he is still working on the Spanish. Sometimes its awkward but we are getting through it. We are both really new. He cant really speak and I am still learning how to be a good teacher. I don't have the Kaye Hanson or the Jeff Kahn touch quite yet, and I dont know if I ever will, but that's the goal. Still working on my teaching, getting good at asking inspired, spirit directed questions. We are working and learning, but This next week should be a good one compared to the little success we had this past week. 

real quick, it is raining SO hard right now. Harder than I have ever seen in my life! The owner of the cyber even said wow. 

A couple stories. So we had about a half hour before our lunch appt so we decided to do some contacting. We contacted a few houses and ran into a SUPER J.W. She was super nice but when we tried to talk, she would interrupt us and just start saying how our Father Jehovah is loving. I asked her why she didn't know god´s name? If she had ever asked him. I told her that his name is Elohim and Jesus Christ is Jehovah. if we all knew Hebrew, we would all be Mormon. Finishing Jesus The Christ was so great because I knew exactly where she got confused and why and where that whole misconception comes from. Anywho, it wasn't an argument or anything just bore testimony, that's all. haha anyway we left, not getting anything out of it. (or so we thought) We went to lunch and when we were leaving, she was outside. She asked us to come over and help her and we thought, oh no..here we go again. She said something was inside her house and she needed our help to get it out. It was behind her huge heavy dresser.  We pulled the dresser back and there was a MASSIVE iguana type thingy. she went and got the machete and gave it to me.  She pulled the super long tail until his head came out. I macheted the head SO hard but nothing happened. I had to do it like 5 times until it died. We took it outside to get some pictures. It was nuts! 


Also, we found a couple great families. We met them towards the end of the week so they are really in the early stages still. but we´ll work with them this week and try and find some references too.

My study this week was great! I studied a lot about the priesthood. Really, that is the biggest difference between us and any other church. The Priesthood and the Book of Mormon, which came about because of the Priesthood. It was great to study from the bible and the book of Mormon, along with Jesus the Christ. I love the reference in 3 Nephi when Christ gives the authority to the apostles and they baptize. Its so clear and simple and easy to understand. I wish I would have brought my study journal with me to share a couple things I learned with you all. I would suggest that you study a little bit more about that. My understanding and level of gratitude for the priesthood increased and my testimony was strengthened. What a blessing it is. 

Not much to tell about this week. Sorry. Maybe more next week. 

I love you all. I think I say that every letter but Honesty is an important characteristic. :) I pray for you all daily! Thanks for everything.

Elder Burr

01/22/2012

Hello,

I am sorry that last weeks letter was shorter and was without details. I will try my best this week to fill you all in about whats going on here. You are right dad, LOTS of change. one thing I realized with the change was how crazy Esmeraldas was. I started there so I didnt quite realize it until I got here. Where I am is a smaller city called La Concordia. Its about an hour outside the bigger city of Santo Domingo. It is really relaxed here. I remember how I felt in Esmeraldas, you kind of always had to have the look out for sketchy looking people, watch your things on the buses and just be careful. Here it is so tranquilo. The people all smile, and it just has a different feel. Its more safe I guess you could say. I dont know its kind of hard to explain but just know that Esmeraldas was nuts and here its not. :)

My companion is great. He is only a change in so I am finishing the 12 week training program with him. Its good because with Pineda, we couldnt do it. We had to be out of the house at 10 in the morning and we only had an hour of companionship study. I dont know if you have heard about the program but its an hour of personal study, 2 hours of companionship study with different exccersizes to do including videos to watch, (we have a mini dvd player in the apartment.) and one hour language study. Its kind of boring to be in the house until noon every day but its good because the study program is inspired. i like it alot. Anyway Elder Rogers is awesome. he is a great example to me. He cant speak very well yet and he struggles understanding but i keep telling him to just pay close attention and it will come. He has a great desire to contact everyone, and work hard so we are working good together. He is a great missionary and has a great desire to serve.

Our ward we are in is amazing. sunday, the entire sacrament meeting room was filled and people were in other rooms listening over the speaker. It looked like a ward and not a branch. The leadership is well established and there are a lot of really strong members. We received more references this week than we did the entire time in esmeraldas. The people just seem to be juiced to work and excited to give references, even though they are giving them to two gringos who dont speak all that well. They trust in the spirit, as do we, as we teach there friends and family. We had a lot of people to teach and we are busy. I am really looking forward to working here.

We had 4 baptisms this week. Early in the week we got a reference of less active family. The little boy, Estivan wanted to get baptized and told us that some day he wants to be amissnioary.  He asked  us for a book of mormon. We were able to teach him all the discussions this week, along with his family. They all came to his baptism and confirmation. It was a great experience to see the faith of the 11 year old and you could see the affect it had on the family. We taught about the book of mormon and I asked the mother if she had ever read the book of mormon.She said no. Hmm..why could she be inactive? anyway, I bore testimony of its power and truthfulness of it, and promised her that if she would read it with her kids and husband that her life would be blessed beyond comprehension. I then asked estivan if he would read it with her, and make sure that his family reads it. He said he would. He took it like a calling and a responsibility. It was just a great experience.

THe other 3 were a family that the missionaries have been working with for a LONG time. 5 months. They have missed many baptism dates and to be honest didn't have testimonies. Well, when I got here, I asked elder rogers if they had friends in the ward. We call them Hermanadores. He said no but that he had suggested it to his previous companion several times, he just blew it off, or didnt understand him. haha but anyway, we went to the relief society presidents house and asked for her help. She said OF COURSE! she is great. we set up an appointment with the family and we were over there the next night. It was us, the ward mission leader, the relief society president and her counselor. We started the lesson off great, just small talk getting to know one another. Then, we talked about baptism. The sisters both shared their experiecnes, and being converts within the last year, it was very powerful. Besides that, they are women. They can give a little kiss to greet them, hug them, touch them,  and just love them. We can only talk and shake hangs. Its amazing how far a little beso can go, a tight hug and a short little visit. . That is basically all they did. Then the counselor asked them if they had testimonies. they said, kinda kinda. she then changelled them to pray and find out for sure if this is the true church. Me and elder rogers just sat there mouths open. We watched the affect that the members had on them, and above all, the spirit burned and festered the whole lesson. It almost brought tears to my eyes as I watched these sisters testify, invite, and show love. We did the same and I think it was equally as powerful. Long story short, they prayed with real intent and on Friday received an answer, saturday were baptized and sunday confirmed. Great experience of working with the members for both elder rogers and I. Everyones testimony was strengthened. Elder rogers companion before caught word and called me. he was happy. But honestly we did nothing. It was nothing but the spirit. and a short little love visit of the members.

I got the package with the gel in it,  the awesome pens and candy! haha thanks so much. It was fantastic. we are only 4 hours out of quito now so I think the packages will be easier to get, as opposed to being 7 and a half. But thank you!

District meetings are every thursday morning. Then we have a leaders meeting every friday morning. I would love ideas for the meetings dad. That would be fantastic. Its just important to keep everyone pumped up, focused on the purpose and working hard. The missionary commission we are using as a mission right now. President used it in the first of the year trainings that he did to every zone. he gave every companionship one and told us to put it on the door. It's a coincidnece you say that dad.

Will you be sure tell grandma and grandpa that I love the church news they send and the letters. I love them so much and think of them often. I shared the quote about the toilet paper roll with the zone and they all laughed. They said, "your grandpa is the man!" or "thats so coool that your grandma and gpa send you that every week. I wish mine did" Be sure to tell them that I love them.

Thanks so much for all you do. mom and dad, be sure to use sunscreen. have fun!!! Josh good work on duty to god. Love you guys!

Elder Burr