Pioneer Day!

Happy Pioneer day everyone! We got to celebrate it here as well which was pretty fun! Bonaire has been pretty awesome and we've had some super cool experiences!

We had a fun week! I'm going to go out of order, so hopefully it's not too confusing! But on Saturday, we had a Pioneer Day activity with the branch and went on a hike pretty close to the national park here in Bonaire! It was super fun and great to be in the outdoors and have a good time with the branch. Not too many people came, but the people that did come had a great time. Pretty awesome! On Friday, we had a service activity for the Albus family again and I went into construction mode Elder Burr! I was in charge of the drill for most of it and went to town! I took apart a dog house thing and all the elders worked together to clean out a shed and then take it apart. Super fun activity and also super tiring, but we all had a blast! We also did service for a less active named Sister Carti and helped clean up her yard which was a lot of fun as well. Service service service! Always a good time here. We also had a lesson with Genesis this week on Charity. Genesis is an 18 year old that is just incredible. Has helped so many people come to the church and is so converted it's crazy. We talked about charity though and how important it is to develop our charity and to share it with others and she shared some tender experiences of some times when it was really hard for her to be charitable because people were very racist and rude to her and she wanted to know how she could possibly be charitable to people like that. I was able to testify though that she cannot do it by herself, but with the help of the Savior and His Atonement, she could get the strength to do it. Many things in this life are incredibly hard, if not impossible for us to do, but as we turn to the Savior and use His Atonement, He gives us the strength to do the right things and to do these things that may be really hard to do. It was an awesome lesson and the Spirit was super strong.

One of the youth here named Gari has been awesome too since he's so converted! We didn't have enough priesthood for the Dutch service on Sunday, so hey stayed the extra two hours just to help out without complaint and was so happy to do it! It was so cool! The Dutch family that just got baptized also gave their first talks this past Sunday and they did so awesome! So much fun!

We had an awesome week and are excited to have another awesome week next week! Love you all and have a wonderful week! The church is true!
-- 

~Elder Burr

A little bit of Bonaire!

 The walk on Pioneer Day

 The apartment

"In The Service of Your Fellow Beings"

Hey everyone! I Hola! I'm in Bonaire now and man is it crazy! But crazy awesome at the same time!

Yeah we've had a pretty awesome week this last week even though it was super crazy! The transfer was crazy but it all went well. I left on Thursday morning at 4 in the morning (brutal) and made it through fine. There was a super nice guy there since my luggage was 10 pounds overweight, but he didn't charge me anything! Blessings! I was a little worried about that, but the light of Christ truly is there I guess ;) First flight was fine to Curacao, no problem, but they scheduled the two flights right next to each other so I basically came within a minute of missing my flight to Bonaire! But I made it, am here now, and am having a good time! It's not Suriname by any means, but it's a good place. Bonaire is a very desert island and there's not much green besides the cacti here but it's great as well. We don't get to go to any of the beaches or anything and those are the nice areas, but it's a lot more developed here than in Suriname. I'll really like it here I think though. It's a little less humid, but pretty hilly and very windy all the time so that's a little rough. It also rarely rains here which is nice, but my first full day here, we randomly got caught in a rainstorm. I can't escape the rain! Elder Dibb is awesome though and we're going to have a super fun transfer! He's an amazing missionary and just super super humble which is so cool. Also he's a big baseball fan so we have some good talks ;)

After getting into Bonaire it took a bit to get settled in and everything, but we're good now. The majority of the people here on the island speak Spanish and Papiamento and most of the youth speaks, Spanish, Papiamento, English and Dutch. Pretty insane. There's quite a few Dutch people here on the island but it's a little hard finding the ones that aren't tourists and who are interested in the gospel. It's pretty fun though! There's a family that just got baptized two weeks ago (the Mens family) and they're all Dutch and is the first family that was baptized in the Dutch group. There's only about 8 in the Dutch group, but they're all wonderful and it was so good to meet them all. Such nice people! We have gotten to see most of the members that we're able to communicate with (in English or Dutch) and have gotten to see some investigators as well. The highlights were doing service for the Chirino family by painting a fence and digging holes for them to put the fence into (they also made us some SUPER good food) and also doing service for the Albus family. President Albus is the district representative here in Bonaire and he's Arubian and his wife is from the Netherlands. They are AWESOME though! We did some heavy labor moving blocks, wood, iron and cement stuff everywhere and it was intense but super fun! They also made us some stir fry that was just to die for! So tasty! Those were probably the highlights of the week! Church was also cool! We go to the Spanish branch from 9-12 and then also to the Dutch group from 1-3. I'm the translator for the group and it's crazy but super fun. Bonaire is a good place!

The youth here are so incredibly strong, it's insane! The youth are so inspiring and just do the right things and are awesome missionaries! So so cool to see!

I learned a lot about prayer this week and I love a scripture in 3 Nephi 18:19 where it tells us that the Lord will bless us as we pray and that we need to pray often! As we turn to the Lord, the Lord is able to bless us with so many more blessings. Turning always to the Lord is a sign of our humility and our willingness to be molded by him. I hope that we can all make our prayers a little more sincere and turn to the Lord in all that we do!

Have a wonderful week and I love you all! Keep on being awesome ;)

~Elder Burr

 Weird Elders!

(Elder Van Den Herik & Elder Christianson)

 Elder Burr and Lilian!

Elder Christianson, Elder Van Den Herik and Elder Burr

You're Sending Me Where?!

Hey everyone again! I hope that you all had a great week! This week was just insane as all transfer weeks are I guess!

Sooooo... We got transfer calls this past Saturday and I'm headed tooooooooooo...... Bonaire! Absolute craziness! It was seriously the last thing that I expected and I'm sad to be leaving Paramaribo South, but I know that I'm going to Bonaire for a reason. I also get to be Elder Dibb's last companion which I'm super excited about since we get along great. I know pretty much nothing about Bonaire, so it should be a pretty crazy experience! I am excited though even with how hard it will be to leave South. You know what's crazy? I've served now in three areas in my entire mission and the three areas have been three different countries! I don't know how many missionaries can say that! 

So that was already crazy and just a shock to me! But the rest of the week was also crazy so I'll write some highlights! Elder Orton and I went on an exchange on Tuesday while Elder Van Den Herik fixed bikes the whole day with the senior couple. Pretty fun time and it was his old area and it was cool for him to see the growth of this area since it was a dead area a year ago. I love this area though!

District meeting on Tuesday was also just awesome. I talked on relying on the Spirit and the other missionaries just taught me so much and I was able to learn a ton from them. It was just super spiritual though and felt so awesome! Good stuff!

Friday all the missionaries in my district went to Brother Marciano's house (a stud member) and we cleaned up the jungle in his yard! Pretty fun taking cutlasses, rakes, and a weed whacker to everything and helping his yard look a ton better! That was a great time and a good bonding experience between the missionaries and Brother Marciano and his family! They're the best and some of my favorite people here in Suriname! Also on Friday I gave my first baptismal interview for the Zusters investigator Joey who is awesome and so prepared! He was well prepared and got baptized on Saturday! So awesome!

Saturday night the missionaries and the branch mission leader put on a fireside about missionary work and it went super well. The Spirit was there and more members came than we expected so that was awesome! Member missionary work is so important especially since as members of the church, we are all missionaries! Keep on doing the great work!

Sunday was my last Sunday in Paramaribo and I got the chance to bear my testimony and to say goodbye to a lot of the members and it was sad, but I had some comfort since I'll be back in Suriname in  a few transfers. I will miss everyone a lot though and especially Lilian, Marciano, the Vrooms, Zuster Ramlal, Cheyenne, Ivan, Edmund, Ivaldo, Elvira, Raisa and the list can go further, but I'll miss them a lot. I know that I'm going to Bonaire for a reason though and I'm excited for this new adventure!

Love you all and I hope that you had an awesome week. Keep on reading those scriptures! You all are great! Lobi!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 Rainbow

 Service

 An evil dog!

 Brother Marciano and his family.  AKA the best members ever!

4th of July!

Hey everyone! Another sweet and very rainy week here in Suriname! Well, every week is rainy and super hot, but hey at least you're never cold! Right Elder Rossi? ;)

We had a good week! Mostly normal week finally which was super nice! District meeting was super fun, talking about the importance of prayer in missionary work and in conversion. I was able to learn a lot from my district and they are just so great! Love them all! The best thing that has happened this week is Sunday basically with all of the members in our area and the investigators. A lot of people came and everyone was asking how to pay their tithing and fast offerings and money isn't the easiest thing to come by here so they just have so much faith! They were all excited to pay their tithing and to show their faith and I know that they'll receive the blessings from it! They are the best! Lilian is also just so wonderful I can't even describe it! She has so much faith, fasted for her son to come back to church and helped us clean up at the church as well and is just helping this branch out so much. We need more people like Lilian in the world. She's an inspiration! Craziest thing that happened was on my exchange with Elder Christianson in his area on Friday. We went to see this guy named Jimmy and he was crazy. Like insane! Just bursting out laughing in the middle of the lesson and we'd say "I know that the Book of Mormon is true" and he'd just immediately reply very loud, "What?! You think I don't believe you?!" Super funny. Elder Christianson and I were joking afterwards that it would be super funny if he showed up at church. And guess who showed up? Jimmy! And the first thing he said to me since I was standing by the door is "Waar kan ik mijn vogel zetten?" That translates to, "Where can I put my bird?" Yeah he brought a bird to church. Pretty funny though and he stayed all 3 hours! Being district leader is super fun and I just learn so much from my district each and every week! They are the best and they teach me way more than I teach them I feel like. Weirdest thing would probably be just figuring out exchanges and stuff but nothing too weird so far. It's fun. Our investigator Jimmy is also doing great and has come to church the last three weeks which is awesome! He's getting baptized on the 16th which is super cool! The area is doing great though and we should have an awesome week! Loving it!

I learned a lot this week about the importance of sharing the love of God with others and to come to know the love of God yourself! When we come to understand how much God loves us, we will have a natural desire to share it with others! Let's all get a better relationship with Him and then share that relationship with others! 

That was our week and I hope you all have a stupendous week and feel the love of God! Love you all and thank you for the support! Jullie zijn geweldig en ik wil jullie allemaal danken voor uw liefde. Ik hou van jullie! Lobi!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 4th of July fun!