Transfers!!!

Hey everyone! Sorry this is so late but the email place was closed the last few days so I've finally gotten the opportunity to email now! Hope that you're all doing fantastic though!

Some cool things that happened this week is that we got 3 new investigators this past week which was a huge success for us! They all speak Dutch as well so there's some miracles right there! One cool person that we taught was someone named Tecla and Brother Mens came teaching with us. We had a cool lesson with her where she had a concern about our church and it seemed like the lesson was going to be pretty contentious, but the Spirit prompted me to say certain things (I can't even remember what I said!) and then she just let it go and was a lot more open! It was way cool and she said that we can come back and teach her this week so we're super excited! Also we taught another person named Lourdes for the first time and Sister Mens came teaching with us and she was able to bear her testimony on how she came to know that the church is true and it was super powerful. The Mens family has been a huge help for us and they are just on fire and are so willing to go out teaching with us and to share the gospel on their own. One other fun thing this week was that we got to help Sister Mens out at the animal shelter where she works. Calissa would be in heaven! I was in a room at one point with 38 cats and kittens. Be jealous ;) There are also a ton of dogs there and it was super fun to be there and help out the people working there! Cool experience. Things are going well here and Elder Geigenmiller is here now and we're pumped to have an awesome transfer together! Good things are happening!

I also had a super cool experience at district meeting this past week. We were doing a role play and I was the investigator in it and we were talking about repentance. I just got super into the role play and it seemed so real for me, and they were talking to me about how I can change (I was pretending to be a person that had made some pretty serious mistakes) and how I can be better. Elder Sarmiento motioned to a picture of Christ with His arms outstretched and it hit me so hard that it brought me to tears.  

2 Nephi 1:15

15 But behold, the Lord hath aredeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his bglory, and I am encircled about eternally in the carms of his dlove.

Christ's arms are always stretched out to us and we just have to fall into them. Super cool experience. I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week! Lobi!

-- 

~Elder Burr

Airport Miracles!

Hey everyone! Life in the ABC islands is always crazy, but always Hopi Bon as they say here! Loving it here and I hope that you're loving life where you are as well.

So I'm staying as most people probably guessed and I will be serving with Elder Geigen-Miller who is pretty cool! I'm excited but I will miss Elder Hardy for sure. I had an awesome week this past week! I went on exchanges in Aruba with Elder Sheppard and Elder Nance and they both did awesome! Great exchange and it was super fun being there with them. We went and taught a member named Zuster Gerda from Suriname (she's in her 50's) and she hasn't been taught in Dutch for a super long time. So we surprised her and didn't say anything until I said the opening prayer in Dutch! She was pretty surprised and super happy and I had the opportunity to teach her about the Atonement in Dutch and she understood it so well and was just amazing. She said the closing prayer in Dutch, which she hasn't done for a long time and it was honestly one of the best prayers that I've heard in my life. It truly came from the heart and the Spirit that was present as she was praying was incredible. After she finished it, both her and I were pretty teary eyed and it was just such a cool experience that I won't forget for a long time. I learned a lot about prayer from that. She also bought us some Wendy's for dinner which was pretty awesome as well ;) I hope I get to see her again some day! The rest of the exchange was awesome (besides the fact that they left our luggage in Curacao and it took a day to get that back). Going back home from the exchange was also filled with cool experiences. We checked in in Aruba to head back to Bonaire and after that we walked outside and someone said "Elders!" so naturally we turned around and went and talked to them. This lady was a member from Venezuela who was actually a missionary almost 40 years ago! We had a good chat with her and while we were talking, this other lady passes by and says that her dad was baptized 3 years ago and has been trying to share the gospel with her and she was open to being taught by the missionaries. Bam! Miracle! Then after she left and we were still talking, another lady passes by and says that we are missionaries from her church and they found out that they were both members! Miracles all over the place. It was super cool. The Venezuelan lady was telling us that an apostle came to Venezuela and told them how important the members are in Venezuela for the future of the church there. She was awesome! So we fly to Curacao after that and are going through transit to head back to Bonaire, and this other lady came up to us and asked us for help to get through the airport to where we needed to go. I asked where she was from and she said Suriname! No way!! I got super excited and we started talking and helped her get through and then we sat by her while we were waiting for the airplane. Her name is Xaviera (good luck pronouncing that) and she's 28 and works for the government in Suriname and was on vacation. We found out that she doesn't really believe in God, so we started talking about it (Elder Sarmiento and I). We proceeded to talk for the next 3 hours about God, about change and about repentance and it was so cool. By the end of it, she admitted to herself that she thinks that she does believe in God. It was just such a cool experience and we were able to testify of the reality of a God and of His love for us. She was super interested more in our message so I gave her a pamphlet and she said that she's going to call us this week! Miracles at the airport. The time in Bonaire was also good and we had a cool experience yesterday where the first person that we contacted was, try to guess, from Suriname! We talked about the Book of Mormon with him and he wanted to learn more, so he drove us and talked with us while he had to go pick something up from his work. He's awesome and we're going by tomorrow to have a lesson with him! Things are going great here and I'm loving Bonaire!

Keep on learning and growing and try to give God a chance if you've never done that before. If we pray with a sincere heart, with real intent and with faith in Christ, we can know that He is there for us, that He loves us and that He is our Father. I invite you all to get that confirmation and to do your best to be perfected in Christ!

Moroni 10:32  Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

You all are amazing and inspire me every day to keep on working hard and to open my mouth and declare the things I know to be true. Thanks for being awesome! I love you all!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 Living the life in Bonaire!

Curacao!

Hey!! Hope you all are doing awesome!

We had a good week this past week! It was a little crazy and packed, but it all worked out and we had some good times. We went to Curacao on exchanges on Thursday and we had a really good time with Elders Rios and Tanner. I worked more with Elder Tanner and he did so great! Such a humble missionary and it was super fun working with him and finding ways to help him out in his missionary work. On Friday we had zone conference as well and Elder Sarmiento and I had a big part in it with teaching about repentance. We taught for about half an hour and it was just so great! It went really well and I truly felt that it was guided by the Spirit. We talked a lot about what repentance is and how we can help our investigators to come to understand what repentance is and how they can repent. It was honestly super fun and I really enjoy teaching! The missionaries in the zone made it easy since they participated a lot and had such good insights and experiences that they were willing to share. President Egbert's message was super good and we talked about Flaxen and about chains that Satan tries to get us with. There was a super good quote that said something along the lines of that they chains become too hard for us to break on our own without us even knowing it. So it's usually too late if we procrastinate repentance since the chains become stronger and stronger. It was really cool and there was a fun visual that went along with it. On Wednesday, it was s senior couple day and we had a big list of things to do and we somehow got it all done. It included: Buying the other Elders some inventory supplies, paying the water bill, getting new tires on the car, sending in rent receipts, calling Salt Lake City to have them help us to fix the computer at the church and to get gas. Crazy day, but it somehow got all done. One good lesson that we had this past week was with Maryline and she promised to come to church, but she sadly wasn't able to make it. One cool experience that we had though was yesterday while we were finding people to teach, I was just praying in my heart, that we would find a young Dutch couple that would talk to us. Well, one of the first people that we talked to right after that, was a young Dutch couple that talked to us for a few minutes! They weren't really interested in our message, but it was cool to see that God does answer prayers and He is always there for us. We had district conference on Sunday and got a new counselor in the District Presidency which was exciting and the service went really well. Loving the time here in Bonaire and I'm going to Aruba in a few days so more adventures are coming!

2 Nephi 28:22

22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.

Just remember to always stay strong and to rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ always! You all are wonderful and I love you all! Lobi!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 Yep I bought Harry Potter in Dutch!

 Curacao!

Elder Burr!

This is Kapsalon, tasty Turkish food.

Baptism!!!!

Hey everyone! Hope that life is going pretty awesome! It's cruise season here in Bonaire so we're getting like 5+ cruises per week and there's two here right now! Life is good!

We had a pretty good week this week! One of the coolest things that happened was that we scheduled an appointment with this Surinamese lady and her sister and we went and saw them on Friday. Her named is Mona and her sister is Chantal. Well before we started the lesson, Chantal told us that she was on vacation and was just visiting for a little bit before going to Suriname and she also told us that she is best friends with members in Suriname named the Ronoreso's! Miracle! So they had been trying to share the gospel with her and she wasn't too receptive, but she was excited that we were here and were able to talk with her. So the lesson went awesome with the two of them and they seemed very open and prepared for the message which was so cool! We were talking about God and testified that we were there for a reason and that touched them a lot. Just an awesome lesson and we are SUPER excited for them! Also, Dayra Saragoza got baptized! Genesis and Omar's little sister! It was awesome and on the beach so that was super cool! Beautiful service and beautiful weather! Loved it and the branch was just pumped about it. So cool! Church was great and we are working super well with the Mens family who are just on fire. The branch is great and we're just having a blast and working hard finding those people that are ready! Life is great!

I'm just so happy to be a missionary right now and I want to testify again how much a mission has changed my life and how much it will change your life if you go on one! Missions change your life forever! Love you all and hope that you all have a wonderful week! God bless you all! Lobi!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 The baptism and some awesome people!

Carnival!

Hey everyone! It's super late since Carnival made everything closed this past week! So I'm finally here and alive and well!

We had a great week this past week and I'll share some of the cooler experiences. We have that investigator named Martin that has been doing well and he actually called us this last week on Wednesday and asked if we could come over and bring the video "Finding Faith in Christ." We headed over to his house and we had a really cool lesson with him. The day before, he had a near death experience that rattled him a lot and he kept just saying "I don't want to die." He was super open to what we were saying though and we were able to testify how this life isn't the end and also about some of the experiences that we have had in our lives that were hard for us. It was just very touching and I got to share an experience that was close to my heart about Mr. Smidebush and it brought me to tears. Just a powerful spiritual lesson that was guided by the Spirit for sure. We also taught this older Dutch man twice named Hans who has been doing really well. He used to have a strong belief in God, but he's not too sure now and is super open to the things we say. He's read out of the Book of Mormon as well and we're just pumped for him! The other cool thing that I'd like to share is how every day before we go out to contact for most of the day, we always pray to find at least one person that is willing to listen to us. We contact a lot each and every day, and sometimes it's a little hard. But every day, the Lord blesses us with at least one person who is willing to talk to us and it's such a blessing. Prayer is real and when we humble ourselves before God and ask for the things that we need, if it is His will, he will bless us with them. Miracles!

I've truly come to appreciate the power of prayer lately and the importance of seeking divine help in the things that we do. When we involve the Lord in our lives, things will work out is what I have seen. If I have to correct someone or something and I don't pray before it, it always goes bad and it's just not good. What I've found though when I think of a solution and ponder the situation a lot and then seek for the confirmation and the Lord's help in the words that I say, there is never a problem. Seek the Lord's confirmation in all things and you will always stay on the right path!

Love you all and hope that you have a great week! Bonaire is awesome!!!!

-- 

~Elder Burr