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!
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~Elder Burr
Living the life in Bonaire!
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