Elder Burr- Spreading Hope in the Heat: I'm Getting There!

Hey everyone! Hope everything is going well for you all because it's going great here at the MTC!

I'll try to send a synopsis of the week and list some of the highlights as best as I can! Hopefully it all makes sense and I can convey the Spirit that I've felt here this week because it has been amazing! Let's begin!

First of all, at the start of the week I was running into the gym to go play volleyball like I do every day for gym. While running into the gym my toe hit the floor and fell straight onto my knees which wasn't very graceful but oh well. My knee is still purple but it's all good. No big deal and not my greatest moment. One thing that was also awesome that day was that our teacher taught us Harry Potter words! If you ever want to call anyone a wizard or a squib in Dutch, its tovenaar and snul. Just a fun little fact.

On Friday we got our second investigator so we teach two lessons a day now which is crazy! I used to think that we had so much time each day and I didn't know what to do with it all but now it's like we don't have enough time each day to do everything! The time really flies here! I now teach all my lessons with only a few key topic notes in English and I teach the whole time in Dutch off the top of my head. It's intimidating, but I've really learned to rely on the Spirit to help me and the Spirit will put the words I need to say into my head. I've had several promptings this week which have been amazing. Also on Friday, I was feeling like I needed to a better job of trusting in the Lord to tell me the words to say and to guide me in my lesson plans and while I was making plans, I was flipping through the scriptures and turned to Proverbs 3:5-6 which mentions "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths." WOW. That was exactly what I needed to hear and it really strengthened my testimony of how the Spirit works. Super special experience for me for sure.

Saturday was a normal day with teaching two lessons and learning Dutch and the gospel and everything. One fun thing that we did was our teacher, Brother Norton (the greatest missionary teacher in the world, like seriously), had us play a who-can-translate-the-fastest game. I held my own and it really showed me how much I've learned here in only three weeks! I've already learned more in these three weeks than I learned in 4 years of Spanish back at home. Craziness! There's a great need to learn here and I still have soooo much that I need to learn. Each day I work super hard to learn more Dutch and learn more about the gospel because I can always improve at it.

On Sunday it was great as always. Sunday's are like a break because we don't have 11 hours of class a day which is a nice break. We had great lessons on the Holy Ghost and on Baptism and I definitely grew for sure. The devotional was great and the video we watched afterwards was on how to teach better by Elder Holland. I learned so much from it and learned mostly that after you put in all your effort to prepare, is when the Spirit will come into the lesson and be the real teacher. Great talks and a great day!

Monday we taught another two lessons to our investigators (Evine and Julio) and I think that they were the best lessons I had taught yet. With Evine I talked about the importance of baptism and the Spirit was sooo strong and helped me when I was testifying about it. I'm really enjoying teaching these discussions. I feel like I'm making a difference in people's lives and it's awesome to see. That night I played a prank on my companions where I had a key and they didn't and I closed to door to our residence and then came out with a panicked look on my face asking if they had a key. They were both freaking out a bit about it and when I wasn't looking, Elder Hunt actually started to call the front desk. Whoops! But it was really funny and they took it well. I have awesome companions!!

Tuesday was also great mostly because of the devotional at night. Elder Dallin H Oaks from the quorum of the 12 apostles was at the MTC to speak to us. Hekke geweldig! (Crazy awesome) He spoke on the importance of the Plan of Salvation and the importance of teaching with love. When you teach, you need to love the people you're teaching and love your companion as well. If that love isn't there, the Spirit can't be there and you'll have a really hard time teaching. I learned a lot from it and it was a very special experience. Also on Tuesday in one of our lessons, we meant to share the scripture Matthew 18:18 which reads: "

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Good scripture to share. Instead, Elder Hunt said John 18:18 which reads : "18 And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself."

Completely different scripture that made no real sense. Lots of laughter and lots of fun once we figured out what it said (since we were reading it in Dutch).

Thats about it for me this week! Thank you all for you emails because I read them all! You all are amazing and I'll send pictures in a few minutes too. I love you all and have an amazing week!

~Elder Burr