Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a great thanksgiving and that it was filled with lots of miracles and great times. There is truly so much to be grateful for!

We had just an insane week this week with lots of exchanges and random trips up to the city to do random things. Tuesday we had district meeting (Elder Buehler is the district leader here), and it was sweet! We learned a lot about the importance of having faith in missionary work and it just was solid. That night we exchanged and I went with Elder Jennings and on Wednesday we went up to the city to get my drivers license notarized (the American embassy is soooo nice it's insane. Nicest building in Suriname for sure.) and that went well. No problems there. Then we went and dropped off my broken bike at the Crawford's to get fixed. After that we had this whole long process of running around to get other papers and things signed for me to get my license here in Suriname to drive the bus down here in South Zone. So that day was pretty shot. Good stuff though and it needed to be done. Then Thursday we all went up to the Crawford's house to celebrate thanksgiving and that was some tasty food! Super nice to see all the missionaries as well and to think about the things that we are truly thankful for. We had to weekly plan that night and it is a long way to get back to Uitkijk so that day was pretty shot. Also, that night we exchanged with Koewarasan and I went with Elder Buehler. Friday we had a sweet day together and I was able to learn a lot from Elder Buehler. Great missionary and super obedient which is so important! Finally, Saturday I was back in the area and we went to Groningen (an hour bike ride away) and had a lot of cool lessons there. Sunday we had church which is always good and now we are here on Monday. The craziness never ends. Some cool things that happened though were that Elder Lunceford put 6 people on a baptismal date on the exchanges which was so cool and he's doing so awesome! Great companion and no problems there at all. Also on Saturday, we saw someone new named Vernolia and she needs the Gospel so bad! Well actually, everyone needs the gospel but she just seems so prepared to accept the restored gospel. We had an amazing lesson with her and she just opened up a ton about how hard her life has been lately and we were able to testify of the Savior's help that is available to her. We also gave her a Book of Mormon and she promised to read so I know that great things will come because of that. Those were most of the miracles that happened this week and it was crazy.

I was excited for this week since I thought that it was going to be a pretty normal week, but we got a call yesterday saying that we are having MLC on Friday in Trinidad so we are all flying up on Thursday to head up there (the zone leaders and sister training leaders). So the fun never ends but it's great at the same time. All important things, I just wish I could do some more work in my actual area! It'll come though so no worries. Life is good! Being a missionary is the best thing in the world and seeing people's lives change forever! 

You all have a wonderful week and thanks for all that you do for me. Love you all!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 The Jungle!

 Thanksgiving at the Crawford's.

Suriname!

Hey everyone! I'm back in Suriname! Just in time for Thanksgiving. At this time of the year it is truly a special time to truly reflect on all of the things that we are thankful for. I want to give you all a challenge though. Go out and do something for someone else (a friend, family member, or even a stranger) and give them a reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving. Through serving others, we receive so much joy from our Heavenly Father and that is where the true happiness comes from. I hope that you all can do this because I know that it will be well worth your time.

It was a pretty crazy week! I left on Wednesday night to go to Suriname and after quite a few flight delays, I finally got into Suriname at 3 in the morning and got to the apartment at around 4 in the morning and had a rough time sleeping so I got basically no sleep! #missionlife. That same day, the other zone leaders and the sister training leaders went up to the city to skype into Missionary Leadership Council with the area President: President Gonzalez. That was pretty sweet and then Elder Jennings and I did some more stuff in the city before finally heading back to our areas. So I finally got to Uitkijk on Thursday night and we had to weekly plan so we did that for the rest of the night. Friday, we had zone conference with President Egbert and also with President Gonzalez and his wife. There was a big emphasis placed on baptism! We are all going to baptize before the end of the year and work just so much harder to get more baptisms. We are truly hastening the work here in Suriname! That night we had a fireside as well with all of the members and I saw Edmund again!!! Man that was such a good reunion! Love that man a lot and it was just so great to see him and some of the other members there. Great to catch up with them. Sadly Lilian wasn't able to make it, but I'll see her again at some point I'm sure. That went until late at night, so we didn't get to do any proselyting again! Finally Saturday the leaders in South zone had a planning meeting and that took a while, but eventually we got done with it and I finally got to proselyte in my area! And guess what the first thing was?? Biking to Groningen which is about an hour of biking there. That wouldn't have been too bad, but my front tire was having issues and the front brake was partly activated the entire way. We didn't have any tools out there to fix it, so I just worked through it. Man oh man though, not going to lie at all, that was the hardest biking that I've ever done in my life. Worse than the 300 mile bike ride across California. My legs hurt so bad afterwards that when we stopped at a members house to help them out with packing plantain chips, my legs almost gave out completely and I couldn't even walk straight. So that was a ton of fun getting all the way out there and experiencing that! My legs feel awesome now though and it made me stronger ;) We did teach a recently reactivated less active named Monica and she was awesome! Very very cool and super strong! That was great! Finally we had Sunday and church was awesome! Church is usually really low attendance in Uitkijk, but there were 25 there! Lots of less actives are coming back and we had 3 investigators at church! Super cool and church was just great overall. Good experience! That was my week in short haha. Elder Lunceford is awesome. Very humble, very sincere missionary and he has an awesome testimony. I was super impressed at zone conference how he volunteered and wanted to do the role play. He is very good at trying new things and applying the things that he has learned and it's super cool to see. Very excited to continue to work with him and to see many miracles together! He's from Mapelton Utah.

We had a crazy week and this week we are pumped to go out and light this area on fire. I appreciate all of the prayers and love sent my way. You all are incredible and truly give me so much to be thankful for each and every year. Love you all and have a wonderful week. You all deserve it. Lobi!

-- 

~Elder Burr

Transfers???????

Hey everyone! Hope that life is great! Thanksgiving is coming up which is pretty awesome! Such a great time of the year! Thanksgiving, Christmas are so great. Hope that all is well.

Sooooooo I got transferred! To Uitkijk in Suriname (AKA the jungle!). It's a crazy area in Suriname that sounds super awesome so I'm pretty pumped to go there. Elder Lewis and I are actually switching places which is pretty crazy! I will be serving with Elder Lunceford who just got done being trained and I've heard a lot of good things about. Super excited about it and also a little sad to be leaving Bonaire. The members here are INCREDIBLE and I will miss that a lot. These Dutch members are just so great and I will miss their strength. I know that transfer calls are inspired though and I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me in Uitkijk!

We had a pretty good week this past week as well! We got two new investigators named Idith and Marlon and they are sweet! Two different people that seem pretty open to the gospel and to the Book of Mormon. Marlon actually had read out of the Book of Mormon before we came back and had some questions about it and it was sweet! They are very cool. We also had a sweet lesson with Sister Carti who has been reading the Book of Mormon every day and has had so many spiritual experiences, it's crazy. Another sweet lesson that we had was with Genesis and we talked about obedience and it was totally guided by the Spirit. We had planned to teach her about obedience and we didn't know why, but in the lesson, she got inspired to do something that was hard for her to do. So cool how things are guided by the Spirit. When we follow the spiritual impressions that we receive, miracles come from it! Those were definitely the highlights for this week. I will miss this area but I'm excited to go back to Suriname at the same time.

My testimony grew on Faith this past week and I was reading something that stuck out to me a lot about how faith is like a seed. We want that seed to grow which can be our testimony, but often we see the seed sprout and then we get super excited that something happened and we never go on to develop it more. But the potential tree or testimony has the potential to grow up to a giant redwood. Always have spiritual experiences that help you grow that testimony even more and get the potential that we all can have.

Keep on sharing your testimonies and having spiritual experiences because they'll bless your lives forever. Love you all a lot and I hope that you have a wonderful week. You deserve it! Lobi!
-- 

~Elder Burr

 A truck caught on fire while we were shopping. 

 Sunset

 The moon!

 Some of the members here in Bonaire!

 They're awesome!

 Omar and Genesis! Studs!!!

 We are "Currying" as Omar would say!

The Saragoza Clan!

Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao!

Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing great! Things are going well in one of the craziest missions in the world! I was in Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao this week which is a pretty normal week for me here in the islands. Pretty crazy huh? 

It's been a pretty good week this past week. I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Munoz and Elder Sarmiento in Aruba and that was a great experience. They are doing awesome and it was great to learn from them and also super great to be able to help them to be more effective missionaries. The best part of going on exchanges with other missionaries in my opinion, is in serving them and finding ways to lift them up and show them what they can do to find more success. Great experience and I was impressed with them. It was another hard week investigator wise since we didn't get to teach any new people at all, even though we had a bunch of appointments set up. They all ended up canceling or were no shows when we showed up so that was a little tough, but people have their agency and we can never take that away from them. We had two really good lessons with the Mens family this week and the helped us learn how we can more effectively talk to Dutch people. We also talked to them a lot about the Plan of Salvation, and seeing their understanding was so cool. They are so strong and they've only been members for about 5 months and it's just so cool to see and be a part of. We also had a really good lesson with President DePalm and his wife and they are some of the most humble people that I've ever met before in my life. Such a great couple and are truly doing their best to help this branch out. One last great lesson that we had was with Omar who wanted to learn how to strengthen his testimony and we talked about reading the Book of Mormon every day. We shared 1 Nephi 8 with him and talked about the key to getting the fruit of the tree of life was in reading the Book of Mormon daily and "continually holding" onto it. Super cool lesson and he is a stud! My testimony grew a lot on patience this week in reading D&C 24:8 which talks about being patient in afflictions, because we're going to have a lot of them but if we endure it well, God well bless us abundantly with blessing. Be patient, especially here in Bonaire where the work is a lot slower and sometimes it seems like we're not doing much good even though we're trying our best. Be patient and realize that as long as we're trying our best, that's all that the Lord can ask of us. That was a cool experience for me! Things are going well here and the miracles are so apparent!

Thank you everyone for your support and love because it is really appreciated. Remember that God loves you, cares about you and is your biggest fan cheering there on the sidelines. So grateful for that knowledge that we have. Love you all and have a great week! God bless!

~Elder Burr

Elder Sheppard was out!!! At coordination with the branch mission leader!