Vrolijk Kerst!!!

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas because mine sure was great! Getting to talk to my family again was definitely the highlight and feeling of their love! This Christmas I've been able to focus more on the Savior and it was truly able to be one of the best Christmases that I have ever had, being closer to the Savior and truly thinking about why we celebrate Christmas!

Church was awesome and we had a Christmas feast afterwards with the members that was super fun and they are all doing great! Some long time less actives came and just loved it and the branch is continuing to grow! Great things are happening here! We also got a super cool new investigator named Romero that is super prepared and accepted a baptismal date so we're super pumped for that! Love it here in Uitkijk and I loved hearing from many of you! Thank you for the emails, they really are a boost to me each week that inspires me to continue working harder and giving my all to the Lord! There's no other place I'd want to be than here! I love Suriname and I love Christmas! Sorry the email is a little shorter! I'll do better next week :)

Ik hou van jullie allemaal en ik hoop dat jullie een geweldige kerst hebben gehad! Vergeet niet dat Christus altijd daar voor ons is! Lobi!

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~Elder Burr

 Christmas with the Suriname missionaries

 The Three Wise Men

 Practicing "We Three Kings"

 The Suriname Missionaries on Christmas Eve!

Sister Vernes, Sister Parker, Elder Lunceford, Elder Burr

Go!!!!!

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! I guess it's still a little early, but by the time that I email next week, Christmas will have already passed! Pretty crazy! Looking forward to this special time to remember the Savior and to recommit myself to follow Him even more. What a wonderful time of the year!

We had a pretty good week this past week even though their was a lot of busy work! Biggest struggle this week was just not having time to do much. We were transitioning to having me have the car and I had to run some errands with it and the Crawfords also asked me to do some stuff, so the time just went away. Also on Wednesday Elder Jennings had to help teach me drive and we had to do stuff in the city, so there went more time. Just not much time to actually work in our area. A big success this week was in finding Errol (the husband of Tiffany). Tiffany is a member and we felt inspired to ask her if we could share a lesson with her and her husband joined in who isn't a member and he seemed very interested in the message. We had a solid lesson with him and are seeing him again tonight! Pretty awesome and we're super excited! Some highlights of the week were definitely driving and learning how to use stick shift for the first time haha. The streets are crazy packed here in Suriname as well so that added to the excitement! Getting it down pretty well now though (I think) thanks to help from on high! The best though was we got stuck once (Elder Jennings was actually driving so it was his fault) in crazy mud and we had no traction and it was pouring down rain. It was a disaster but some very nice Surinamers helped us out and we eventually got free. The best past of me driving though was I was backing up into the middle of a super busy street and keep in mind what is happening here. I am driving stick shift for the first time, while driving on the other side of the car, on the other side of the road in Suriname. So I successfully back up into the street and Elder Jennings jumps back into the car and loudly says, "Go!" So I attempt to go but nothing happened so he sad "Go!" again and nothing happened again so I'm freaking out and we're both just dying of laughter because this is the most pathetic situation ever that I'm just stuck right there with so much traffic not being able to move 😂 So funny and luckily on like the fourth try I was finally able to go. Good times! Another pretty fun experience is that my companion (who is very good with drums) got into a drum battle with a Hindu boy and it was pretty dang sweet. I felt a little silly just standing there but you know, I'd like to say that I did a pretty good job of cheering them on! Afterwards we taught them a lesson and they weren't too interested, but it was still pretty cool. We had a sweet lesson with Fenolia and her two kids about the Plan of Salvation and she's progressing great! Also had a really good lesson with Christine who is also progressing great! She has been exercising a ton of faith because she has found a way to get to church next Sunday by having her brother pick her up for church even though it will overall take him more than 2 hours to do it. They're great! Things are going well here in Uitkijk and we have a fun branch activity planned for Christmas! Life is good!

Don't forget to light the world this Christmas and to help those around you to enjoy this time! I'm grateful for all of you and I hope that we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas this year! Love you all! Lobi!

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~Elder Burr

 Random pictures of me and some cool pots that we helped a member make!

John Cena Always Wrecks Your Day ...

Hello everyone! Fawaka? I hope that things are going well and that you're all getting into the Christmas Spirit! It's coming up quick, so make sure you take advantage of those opportunities to serve those around you and help them feel the joy of the Savior!

So about the title of the email. We're going to teach someone named John in our area and we've started the lesson and one of his friends shows up completely drunk and can barely walk. Well this man is convinced that he is John Cena and is trying to show off some of his moves and also his muscles. Keep in mind that this is a short, overweight Hindustani man and looks pretty ridiculous. The entire lesson he just makes more wrestling poses and also tried talking in Spanish and English which he can barely speak. Good times in the mission field. Gotta love Suriname!

We had a pretty sweet week this past week. Hardly anything went as planned, but we saw some pretty cool miracles so that was awesome. Tuesday we were doing some contacting and we contacted this family named the Ramadeen family and we were just talking about our message with them and then the father goes, "wacht een minuut. Ik kom terug." That translates to wait one minute, I'll be back. So we waited and he goes inside, grabs some more members of the family and grabs some chairs for us all to sit and have a lesson together! Super awesome and we had a sweet lesson and they seem pretty interested, so we'll see what happens with them! Friday we had a sweet lesson with one of our progressing investigators named Christine. She had a question about the word of wisdom, but we felt to talk about the Restoration so we talked about it and then at the end, it all came together and we talked about the word of wisdom a bit. Pretty sweet lesson and it was really guided by the Spirit. There was a member there as well who bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and how she knows that the church is true and Christine was just loving it. Great lesson and she's on a baptismal date so we're pretty pumped for her! Things are going really well with her. We just had a bunch of really good lessons this week but the highlight was probably Sunday at church. Elder Lunceford and I were walking to church and we see a car go by and pull up into the church and it's one of our investigators and her two kids! (Fenolia, Shanelve and Mary-Kate) They came to church and stayed the whole time and just had a wonderful experience. The members did awesome to welcome them in and they just felt the Spirit a lot. Before she left after church was over, she said that she'll see us next week here as well. We have another lesson with her on Tuesday and are just super pumped for her. I also gave a talk on Sunday about Missionary work and I think it went pretty well overall so that was sweet. Sunday was just awesome and we had a super good lesson with the Tapoh family and also with the Waterval family. They are returning less actives and just are doing awesome so we're pumped for them as well. The work here in Uitkijk is going great, I just with that there was duplicates of Elder Lunceford and I so that we could do more work! There's so much to be done! Love it here though and the branch is doing awesome.

I shared a little bit out of a talk by Dallin H Oaks and I'd like to share it with you as well and just encourage you to continue to do missionary work! It's so worth it!

There are three things all members can do to help share the gospel,regardless of the circumstances in which they live and work. All of usshould do all of these.

First, we can all pray for desire to help with this vital part of the work of salvation. All efforts begin with desire.

Second, we can keep the commandments ourselves. Faithful,obedient members are the most persuasive witnesses of the truthand value of the restored gospel. Even more important, faithfulmembers will always have the Savior’s Spirit to be with them to guidethem as they seek to participate in the great work of sharing therestored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Third, we can pray for inspiration on what we can do in our individualcircumstances to share the gospel with others. This is different thanpraying for the missionaries or praying for what others can do. Weshould pray for what we can do personally. When we pray, weshould remember that prayers for this kind of inspiration will beanswered if accompanied by a commitment—something thescriptures call “real intent” or “full purpose of heart.” Pray with acommitment to act upon the inspiration you receive, promising theLord that if He will inspire you to speak to someone about thegospel, you will do it.

We need the guidance of the Lord because at any particular timesome are—and some are not—ready for the additional truths of therestored gospel. We should never set ourselves up as judges of whois ready and who is not. The Lord knows the hearts of all of Hischildren, and if we pray for inspiration, He will help us find personsHe knows to be “in a preparation to hear the word” (Alma 32:6).

As an Apostle of the Lord, I urge every member and family in theChurch to pray for the Lord to help them find persons prepared toreceive the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. ElderM. Russell Ballard has given this important counsel, with which Iconcur: “Trust the Lord. He is the Good Shepherd. He knows Hissheep. … If we are not engaged, many who would hear the messageof the Restoration will be passed by. … The principles are prettysimple—pray, personally and in your family, for missionaryopportunities.”3 As we demonstrate our faith, these opportunitieswill come without any “forced or … contrived response. They will flowas a natural result of our love for our brothers and sisters.”4

I know this is true. I add my promise that with faith in the Lord’s help,we will be guided, be inspired, and find great joy in this eternallyimportant work of love. We will come to understand that success insharing the gospel is inviting people with love and genuine intent tohelp them, no matter what their response.

Sorry that it printed so weird, but oh well, what can you do? I hope that you all have a wonderful week and keep up the Christmas spirit! Love you all! Lobi!

--

~Elder Burr

Birthday!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes and for your love. You all are amazing and I do appreciate all of the love and support that you send my way. Don't know what I would do without you all! Thank you for everything since it really did brighten my way!

We had a pretty good week but yet again I wasn't in the area very much! Monday we did some service for a lot of the days and stamped ash down for a member and sifted it so that she could make pottery out of it. Pretty sweet and my hands were stained black for like the next 4 days! Tuesday I worked with Elder Jennings in his area and attended Elder Hunt's district meeting which was awesome! That night we had a coordination meeting with the North Zone Zone Leaders and with President Verwey to plan for a contacting activity on December 24th so that also went pretty well. Wednesday I picked up my Surinamese drivers license so I am legal to drive now in Suriname! Watch out everyone! Thursday was my birthday and Elder Lunceford made me a cake which was super good! I also got my package with everyone's letters which was so wonderful! You all are amazing and it really did make my birthday special! Most of my day was spent in the airport flying to Trinidad for a Mission Leadership Conference, but that night I did get to teach with one of the missionaries in Trinidad so that was pretty fun. MLC on Friday was incredible and just filled with the Spirit and I'm super excited to take what I learned and to apply it in my zone here and to help them to more fully fulfill their purpose. We got back to Suriname finally at 3 in the morning on Saturday morning. Saturday I finally got to work and have a blast in my own area and then Sunday was church. We had a sweet Sunday with lots of people at church and the testimonies were so good and a theme seemed to be that reading the Book of Mormon every day brings blessings and happiness which was sweet. Members are getting excited to do missionary work as well which has been super nice. We have a new person that we are teaching Fenolia (a mother and her two kids) and she is rock solid. Accepted a baptismal date and they already are most of the way through 1st Nephi. The only thing holding her back is that she has a boyfriend that she wants nothing to do with, but he keeps coming over every day even though she doesn't want him too. She wants him away and is discouraged but seems hopeful that things will get better. The branch is doing well though and missionary work is going great here in Uitkijk! I love it here! 

A spiritual experience that I had this past week was in the lesson with Fenolia. Elder Lunceford extended the baptismal invitation to her and she readily accepted it and wanted her two daughters to also be baptized and the first thing that she asked was "What do I need to do to be ready?" It was just really cool to see her real intent and she that she was prepared to make sacrifices to be baptized. She's great and we're super excited for her. My testimony has grown this past week on the importance of diligence. We have made the decision to go to Groningen (our contact area) 4 days instead of 3 now even though it is an hour bike ride away. From doing that though, we found Fenolia and have had a lot of cool miracles there. Working diligently brings miracles and also brings results so it has been very cool to put in that extra effort and to be blessed with so many miracles. That was super cool! Missionary work is the best!

Keep on being awesome and go out and light the world this Christmas! Keep on doing good deeds for everyone around you and just realize that you are loved. God loves you and Christ loves you and I know that that is true. Keep on being incredible and being a blessing in the lives of the people around you. I love you all!

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~Elder Burr

 Service Aftermath with Elder Lunceford!

Mission Leadership Conference

 Suriname Missionaries

 Setting up Christmas for the Egberts!