Teaching Visits and the Spirit!

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful week this past week! You all deserve it! 

We've had a great transfer so far. The teaching together has been very unified and we're seeing some cool success and some very spiritual lessons. Way cool to see and we're very excited for this area. Some cool successes this week were definitely in the teaching visits that we were able to do with the elders in Koewarasan and in Wanica North. It was great being with them and being able to teach with them and learn from them. Hopefully we were able to help them out a bit as well. The coolest part of those visits that we went on were the reviews that we did at the end of the visits. They were just filled with the Spirit and it was truly an uplifting experience for everyone. The Spirit definitely guided the words and helped us all learn together about what we could do to become better teachers. We also had a super spiritual lesson with a less active member that is named Donny. We were able to talk to him about God and truly see what he believes about God. He has a strong faith in Him and Donny said that he felt that something was missing in his life. He is kinda going to church, but not really reading the scriptures and saying his prayers. So I felt prompted to share D&C 64:33 with him about the importance of doing the small and simple things. He really enjoyed that and we all felt the Spirit and were able to make a plan with him to read every day. Pretty awesome! One other lesson that went really well was with the Aroeman family that is working on coming back to church. We were talking about repentance and how to repent and we were all learning from the Spirit and then out of no where, the father said that he really wants to come back to church and to have a calling again and they all expressed similar thoughts. So awesome to see the change in people as they remember spiritual experiences that they once had. Very good week and we're really looking forward to this week as well! Elder Geigenmiller is great!

One other cool thing that happened this week is that branch conference happened yesterday and it was AWESOME. The theme was the Holy Ghost and the lessons given and the talks given were just so inspired and great. I think my favorite thing from it was when Elder Crawford shared 2 Nephi 32:5 and focused on the part that says that "the Holy Ghost will tell us all things that we can DO." We need to act on the impressions that we receive. If we feel like doing something good, it probably came from the Spirit. I encourage you all to act on those promptings that you receive each and every day. You all are awesome! Love you all and have a wonderful week!

-- 

~Elder Burr

Paramaribo South!

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful week again this past week! Elders Lewis, Hardy and Christianson are all now home which is crazy and we miss them here, but we know that they gave their all! 

I had a crazy week this week. Transfer day was on Wednesday, so Elder Ruegger went to Wanika with Elder Buehler and I was back in Paramaribo South with Elder Dubbeld and Elder Hunt. Elder Geigenmiller didn't come in until last night at like 8 PM so I was in a trio in Paramaribo for the week. It was super fun to be back in my old area though and it was a blast seeing all of the members at church on Sunday! It was especially great to see Broeder and Suster Nille, some of my favorite members in that area. Church was just great and there were many spiritual talks given about faith and about having spiritual experiences. Way cool. Some of the highlights of the week though were definitely a lesson that we had on Tuesday with a new person named Consuella. We talked about God with her and some of the experiences that she had with the church in the past, and she's super willing to come to church and to do things, so we're really excited. The Dunnan family is also doing great and are just making more and more progress and they're coming back to church! Those were most of the highlights and we also got to do service for the Wangsa family and they're also working on coming back to church which is also super exciting. Good things are happening and I'm very excited to be back in my area finally! It should be great working with Elder Geigenmiller again and we're making some good plans for this transfer. Bring it on!

That's all that I've got this week! Continue reading the scriptures and praying always and the Lord will help you in all that you do! God loves you!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 Elder Ruegger's package exploded1

 Fajitas we made

 Transfers!

Elder Crawford, Elder Burr, & Elder Ruegger

 Suriname

 Elder Burr, Elder Hunt and Elder Dubbeld doing service

Wij Moeten God Leren Kennen!

Hey everyone! I just started my last transfer which is crazy! Time sure does go by quick and it's so important to make every moment count! You don't know how long you'll have the opportunity to serve whether it's a mission or a calling so you really need to make every moment count!

So I'm staying! You all probably guessed that, but I bet that you didn't guess who my companion will be! I'll be serving with........... Elder Geigenmiller again! We also were called to have a new leadership position in the mission. We are the teaching assistants of Suriname. So what we do with that is that in a transfer, we go with every single companionship in Suriname and observe their teaching and help them out a bit to find ways to become even more effective. Of course we go to learn from them as well. Pretty cool though and it's brand new so we'll see how that goes. We have that big bus again to drive haha. I thought I was done with that but I guess not yet! Pretty crazy! Elder Ruegger will be serving in Wanika with Elder Buehler. Crazy huh?

We also had a pretty good week. We had a couple opportunities to do service for the person that fixes our bikes and also for the Nazir family which was sweet. We mixed cement for the Nazirs and it was a TON of cement. We'll just say that I was a little sore afterwards. It was great though and just a blast. We also got to teach some new people named Vincent and Gwen this week and it was AMAZING. It was the first lesson with them and Vincent invited his wife to come sit with us as well and we were able to get to know them a little bit, find out their religious background and talk about God. They are just awesome and seem so prepared. They stopped us and asked us to come have us teach them which almost never happens. Huge miracle and they have 2 little boys, so those are future missionaries right there as well! So cool. We also were able to have a sweet lesson with the Dunnan family about the Plan of Salvation. That is their favorite lesson and they were just so prepared for it and loved it. Sweet lesson filled with the Spirit! Also Sunday was sweet. Elder Ruegger and Zuster Baker bore their testimonies since they were leaving and I was asked to give a talk (I was asked Saturday night so all I had was Sunday morning to prepare it). I was pondering what to talk about though and I ultimately felt inspired to talk about the importance of coming to know God. So I wrote out the whole talk and everything and was all prepared and then... I left my notebook at home. But I went up and gave the talk anyways and God really helped me out to guide my words and help me remember all the scriptures that I wanted to share. It was really cool and the Spirit was super strong. I really enjoy speaking now! Those were some highlights from this week!

One invitation that I gave in the talk is one that I want to give to all of you. It's 6 ways to come to know God better!

1. Sincere Prayer

2. Diligent and Prayerful Scripture Study

3. Doing the will of God

4. Doing missionary work and sharing your testimony with friends and family

5. Going to the temple as often as possible

6. Becoming more like God and Christ every day

I know that as you do these things, you will feel the Spirit and gain a more personal relationship with God each and every day! Love you all and have a wonderful week!

-- 

~Elder Burr

Zo Veel Wonderen!

Hey everyone! We saw a lot of miracles this week and things are just awesome here in Suriname. Love it here and I'm loving my mission!

We had a good week this week filled with opportunities to serve and to build more relationships with more people. On Thursday, we had the opportunity to go clean out a warehouse where our bike person works. He's expanding his shop and he needed a lot of help in cleaning things up and stuff so we all went and helped out and there was a TON of work. We're mostly done, but are going to finish it this week (I forwarded some pictures). We also got to help out the Nazir family. We've been trying to find ways to build our relationship with them and get the grandfather back and they needed help making cement and placing cement for a driveway that they were making and they asked us for our help! So we had the opportunity to spend some time with them and to build that relationship a ton which was awesome. They invited us over for lunch for tomorrow so we are also really excited about that. He also said while we were talking with him that he wants to come back to church so that was super awesome! We had some pretty good lessons with people this week and one sweet lesson and cool miracle was that we had the opportunity to teach this lady named Maureen who is from the Netherlands. She was super open to our message and while we were getting to know her, she mentioned that she had a student that she taught in the Netherlands that is a member of our church! And that student is in the branch that we are serving in! I highly doubt that that was a coincidence and we are super excited for her. She said that she's coming to church this week so that is also super exciting. Sunday was also just great. So many people just went up to bear their testimonies and there was a common theme on the importance of the Book of Mormon and of reading daily. The members are just really stepping up and consecrating themselves more and it's been so cool to see. Last miracle was on Sunday as well. We were going to teach this person named Marcinio who is on a baptismal date, and he was walking with someone that looked familiar. As she turned around, it was Elvira! Someone that I baptized and the little sister of Ivaldo. No one had been able to find her for so long and it was so cool that the Lord had me in the area and in that specific place to find her. She was having a rough time, but we were able to give her a Book of Mormon again and set up an appointment. It was so cool and such a spiritual experience for me. Good things are happening!

Elder Lewis, Elder Christianson, Elder Hardy and Zuster Vernes are all going home next week so I'll miss them a lot, but they served wonderful, honorable missions! They're awesome!

Hope that you all have a wonderful week and continue to draw close to the Savior!

-- 

~Elder Burr

 Also some cool pictures from an old war base!

 Some of my favorite missionaries: Elder Lewis, Elder Christianson and Elder Hardy

 Foto's!! From the service at Vincent's bike shop