Het Priesterschap!

Hello everyone once again! I hope that everyone had a wonderful week and that you all were able to feel the Spirit! We had another great week here in Paramaribo South!

First of all, transfer calls were this last Saturday andddddddd...... I'm staying here with Elder Van Den Herik!!! Super pumped to stay here because I absolutely love it here! #Pararmaribosouthisthebest!

We had a really awesome week! Were able to see lots of miracles and the Lord truly did bless us in our missionary work this week. It was so cool! One sweet thing that happened this week is that the branch president called us saying that someone needed a blessing and it was a referral for us so we were super pumped about that and went and taught the family about the Priesthood and then we gave them a blessing and it was probably the strongest Spirit that I've ever felt in my life. Just so amazing and the whole family was in tears after it and then the parents also wanted blessings. So we went back later, had an awesome restoration lesson with them and were able to give the parents blessings of comfort and it was so spiritual. They really are wonderful. The mother then gave us a referral to her brother who we also we able to give a blessing to and we are now teaching all of these families and they're doing awesome. What a blessing it is to have the priesthood power and to use it to bless the lives of others. 

When we were heading down to teach them another time a guy called us over and asked us to stop and we talked to him and he said that he met with the missionaries about a year or two ago and really wants to meet with us again. So we went and saw him yesterday and after we said the opening prayer, this girl walked over and asked if she could join and then another guy asked if he could join as well and that lesson was just awesome! They all listened very attentively, felt the Spirit and want us to come back. So many miracles from this one family. So grateful for the Lord for blessing us with this!

Elvira and Raisa are progressing great, and Elvira is in Mosiah in the Book of Mormon! Just reading like crazy, marking her scriptures and she's understanding what she's reading! They're both getting baptized on April 30th and we are so excited for them! They've just changed so much and are living the gospel and it's been so fun to see the change in people as they accept the gospel. The gospel is the best!

I'm so grateful for the gospel that we have in the Earth today and for the Priesthood power. It really is amazing and can bring so many miracles. Only through the Lord's help was I able to give these blessings in all Dutch. I'm grateful for the Lord! He's helped me so much and I'm so grateful for him.

We were also able to do some service and there was so much stuff to throw away, but they didn't give us enough bags so we did the only logical thing: Dug a giant hole and buried it all. They have no idea I'm pretty sure but it was pretty effective it seemed like! It was either that or leave in above the ground so I think it was a good idea ;)

We also helped the Fiedkou family move as you can see in the pictures! That was crazy and there was a fridge lowered down from the balcony and I thought that we were all going to for sure fall in the trench but thankfully we didn't. Sad that they're gone and I'm going to miss them a lot. But life goes on.

That was our week here and I'm pumped to continue serving here in Paramaribo South! I know that transfer calls are inspired and that I'm here for a reason so I'll do my best to be a consecrated missionary and to serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength. I'm grateful for all of you and hope that you have an amazing week! You are all the best! Love you lots! Lobi!

--

~Elder Burr

 Ivan (awesome member)

 Shoarma (not healthy but pretty tasty!)

 Helping the Fiedkous' move 

 More moving

 My new scriptures!

 Good-bye Zuster Walsh and Zuster Ibraheim (probably spelled that wrong).  You will be missed!

Families Can Be Together Forever!

Hey everyone! Hope that you all had stupendous weeks and that you saw many blessings in your lives! I sure saw many miracles and had a super awesome week this past week!

One of the best parts of the week was teaching Edmund's (our recent convert) daughter(Elvira) and seeing how sincere she is and how bad she wants to get baptized and live with her father again. She's currently living with her aunt but wants to live with her father and they're planning on doing some legal stuff this week to have it so that she can live with her father. Very very cool and she's reading every day and is in Jacob right now and is getting baptized on April 30th! Super exciting and she's doing so great.Edmund and his family are already planning on going to the temple next year so they can be sealed for time and all eternity as a family! What a blessing it is to have the temple and to be able to stay with our families forever! I sure do love my family so so much and am so blessed to have them by my side. They are so supportive and I can't express how grateful I am for them!

 Also her friend named Raisa is also progressing super well and is also getting baptized on the 30th which we are so excited for! It's going to be a great day!

We also found another cool family this past week and had an awesome restoration lesson with them and they were so into it and super excited to hear all about it so we're excited to see their progression and hopefully they can make the steps to be baptized! 

Another highlight was an exchange with Elder Hunt that I was able to go on! It was super fun to serve again with him and to see how much we've both grown! He's super good at Dutch and such a great missionary! Hopefully I get to serve with him someday! That was a great exchange and we were able to see the miracles (and the sunburn) in his area. Great time!

We were also able to do service for some investigators this week and to build up our relationship so we're hoping that great things and miracles happen because of it! Much of the branch was gone this week going to the temple but they're coming back soon which is exciting! They did over 300 baptisms for the dead which is such a miracle as well! Temples are amazing and I can't wait to go again after my mission! 

Learned a lot about sincere prayer this past week and was able to strengthen my testimony in it and also to make my prayers stronger. What a blessing it is that we can talk to our Heavenly Father and that he can communicate back with us through the Holy Ghost. Prayer really is so important and I want it to become a driving factor in my missionary work. Something that Elder Hood told me was to let prayer rule my mission. I'm taking it to heart and hoping to see the results. Great week here and I am loving Suriname! Best place ever and I just love every single day! 

That was my week and I hope you all have a great week and come closer to our Heavenly Father! That's everyone's goal so that we can return to live with him one day! You all are the best and I love you all! Thank you so much for your prayers and support. I really do appreciate it so much! Lobi!

--

~Elder Burr

 The view from my study desk.

Me!

Forgot to take very many pictures this week!

My bad!

General Conference!

Hey everyone! Hoe gaat het met jullie? Hoe was conferentie? Hope you all had a great week and learned a ton from conference this last week because I sure did! 

We had a hectic week since we were preparing to move so we cleaned like crazy this week and didn't get as much time as I would've liked to proselyte but it was ok. The new apartment is a lot smaller but it'll be good. Elder Van Den Herik really likes it which is important. Ivaldo ended his mini mission yesterday which was a little sad. Going to miss that future missionary. I definitely learned a ton from him and I hope that we were able to help him out a little bit as well. He did a wonderful job and bears a powerful testimony. I love that kid! Probably the most spiritual moment of the week was when Ivaldo gave a family a baptismal date and they accepted! The Spirit was so strong and it was a great moment for Ivaldo and it just made him feel so great! Just was a wonderful experience and I'll miss having him around all the time. The favorite phrase of the week was definitely "jij bent gek!" (you are crazy) and we had a ton of funny and very spiritual moments with him. He has a bright future for sure and will play a big role in the growth of the church here in Suriname.

Two of our long time investigators are also making great progress now and it's been so cool to see! They are reading from the Book of Mormon now more often and are making a sincere desire and attempt to change. Cool to see the role that the Book of Mormon plays in people's lives and the chance that everyone has to change.

Man was conference amazing or what?!?! So man great talks and great speakers in general! Just a tsunami of the spirit and a great time for me to self evaluate myself and see what I need to improve on (which is a LOT! But thats the joy of the gospel and the atonement; the ability to always change and improve).  I loved the quote about how the atonement is used for repentance and also for forgiving. And with forgiving, sometimes you have to forgive yourself. That's one thing that's hard for me, forgiving myself, so that was super good for me of how I can better use the Atonement in my life and continually improve myself. I also loved Jeffrey R Holland saying that all the Lord requires of us is to try and to have the desire to do good. Sometimes I feel like Nephi and just think that I make so many mistakes and how could the Lord ever accept me and this was just such a comfort for me. I cannot wait to read all the talks again and study them! Super excited for that! Conference was such a  blast with all the missionaries here and I love Suriname! If any of you want to see what conference is and is all about then you can go to lds.org to find the talks given. The prophet of God spoke to us and I truly know that he is called of God. What a wonderful experience and blessing that we have to have a prophet on the Earth today!

Love you all and hope that you have a great week and check out general conference because it was the best! Lobi!

--

~Elder Burr

 New Apartment

(Elder Van Den Herik)

 Sweet hike today to Brownsberg Nature Park

Elder Burr and Elder Lewis

 Elder Burr!

Phagwa and the History of the Church!

Hey everyone again! Happy Easter and Second Easter as they celebrate here in Suriname! We had a super cool and crazy week this past week!

We're actually moving apartments this Friday which is pretty crazy but it'll be an upgrade since we had the worst apartment in Suriname! Excited for that but sad at the same time. I absolutely love sharing the gospel every day and there is nothing better! Just finding those people that will listen and keep commitments is so fun! Teaching is just the best as well! We found some sweet people and one family that is just so cool! Their names are Oethra, Tiffany and two others that I forgot but they are the coolest ever! Tiffany is a stud and knows 4 languages (French, Spanish, English and of course Dutch). Insane! They are super sincere though and we were able to do service for them yesterday which was pretty fun and we're building up the relationship with them! Very excited! We also had 8 investigators in church which was awesome! Sadly, Astrid and Eevert pretty much dropped us which hurts my heart but everything happens for a reason. It was a super fun week with Ivaldo here and he did a great job and has a powerful testimony! He's grown a ton and it's been a pleasure to serve with him. Just a great kid overall! Going to miss Ivaldo at the end of this week! Just a stud!

Other than that, we did lots of finding and found a lot of new people! Oh yeah and we had the assistant church historian come and give a message on church history, Joseph Smith and on how you may not think you're doing much, but just look at Abinadi. He has no baptisms, but without Abinadi, the rest of the Book of Mormon would not have happened! It was pretty cool and pretty inspiring. We also had interviews with President Egbert and those were great and he's helping me a lot so that I can change and become more Christlike and more consecrated. I always can improve and I need to improve every day! That's the joy of the gospel! You can improve every day! I love the Lord and I love being  a missionary here and continually become a new creature in Christ! I love Suriname and am looking forward to a great week! 

We also had Phagwa this week which is apparent in the pictures and it was a huge color party! Pretty insane but definitely a good time!

One thing that I really learned this week was the power of the Atonement and the ability to change. Reading Mosiah 27 helped me learn how important repentance really is and I am gaining a testimony of it for sure. Every little thing that we do that is wrong in the slightest we need to repent of and change so that we can become new creatures in Christ. Such a gift to be able to change and to always become better each and every day. We need to follow the example of Christ in all that we do and to truly stop and think, "What would Christ do in this situation?" Then we'll be able to make better decisions each and every day. What a blessing the Atonement is and for how much we can change. Love the gospel and the chance that I have to teach it here in Suriname! 

Ik houd van jullie en hoop dat jullie dichter bij onze hemelse vader elke dag kennen komen. Dat is de weg waarmee wij onzelf kunnen veranderen en altijd beter worden.

Ya'll are the best and I hope you have a wonderful week and draw a little bit closer to Christ! You all inspire me! Lobi!

~Elder Burr

 Ivaldo and Elder Van Den Herik

 All the pictures I took this week! Phagwa was crazy!

(Mom note - I asked him if it came out of his clothes .. He said it all came out!)

What Can You Do?

Hey everyone! Hope you all yet again had an amazing week because you all deserve it!

Probably the best thing this week was Ivaldo! He's on a mini mission with us right now where he's serving a mission with us for a week and a half or so! So so excited for that and he's going to bless his family for sure! Ivaldo is just the best and I love that kid to death!

We had a super fun service activity this past Saturday where we helped Edmund demolish a house and then begin to build a new one. Very excited to see the final result and I hope that his daughter can live with him soon. Prayers going their way for sure. Such a wonderful family. The only bad part of it, even though I put sunscreen on was that I got burnt! So easy to get burnt here it's crazy!

One sad thing that happened this week was that Astrid and Eevert, who were supposed to get baptized this upcoming Saturday dropped us basically and said that they don't really want to get baptized anymore. Devastating.... That was super hard and super sad because so many fasts, prayers and love have gone into them. Just so sad and I hope that they'll change soon because we were super bummed. But I know that everything happens for a reason and if it is meant to be, then they'll get baptized. WE'll see soon I guess. They're still in our prayers as well for sure. But we found some more cool people this week and are excited for them so hopefully all goes well! Still pushing forwards for sure! What else can you do?

We found Ivaldo's cousin and aunt this past week and they are just the best! Very excited for them and excited to see them grow a ton! They are such a humble family and seem very prepared to receive the Gospel! We gave them a baptismal invitation and they accepted it which was super cool! Hopefully things go well with them!

My testimony grew a lot this past week on becoming more like the Savior. I've really tried to focus on other more than I focus on myself and just to become more like Christ in general and it's tough! But so so worth it when you do it. Staying humble, patient and relying on the Lord in all that you do is so important! Very cool to see the miracles!

Those are the highlights from this week and we've got Phagwa this week which is a giant hindu color party thing which will be crazy! Super excited though!

I hope you all have a great week and I appreciate all the kind words of support! It means a lot! Love you all! Tot ziens!

--

~Elder Burr

 Elder Lewis and I (awesome Elder)

 Before picture of Edmund's house

Edmund's pet monkey!

The Days Go By!

Hey everyone yet again! Back here in Suriname! Loving it here! Such a good place!

Working now with Elder Van Den Herik and it's been going well so far. Working together in unity and he's from the Netherlands so my Dutch is getting better for sure! Excited to continue to be obedient, diligent and have the Spirit to be with us!

We had a pretty solid week this last week and found a ton of cool new people! Astrid and Eevert are progressing great towards baptism and are getting baptized on the 26th! Very excited for them and they are keeping every commitment and coming to church every week! Very cool to see with them. Probably the best part of the week was Ivaldo though. He's Edmund's son and came out teaching with us pretty much every day and is giving us a ton of referrals! He's also going to go on a mini mission with us next week probably where he's going to serve with us for a week while they are on vacation! Super cool and super excited to see ivaldo grow some more. Just a great kid and he wants to be a missionary so bad! He's just the best!

Also, Edmund is getting called as a branch missionary and also the Portuguese translator in the branch which he's super pumped about and we are as well. He's so willing to serve and bring people to the church! Just glowing right now and he's just killing it. Got the Spirit working in him and we're working to try to get his daughter to live with him again. She wants to but her grandmother doesn't but we're teaching the grandmother now so hopefully all goes well and everything will work out. Excited to see! We had a solid week though and I'm excited to continue working hard and relying on the Lord with everything that I do.

We had a HUGE miracle this week too! Lilian, one of our investigators has been working on Sundays so she hasn't been able to come to Church but her boss told her this past week that she doesn't have to work on Sundays anymore! What?!?!?! Miracle alert! So she can now come to church and will get baptized just now! So so excited! So cool to hear!

That was our week and I hope you all are doing great! Getting a strong testimony of the importance of humility! Learning a lot about it and seeing truly how humble Christ was. So cool to study and apply in my missionary work. Loving the mission and the time is passing so fast! Too fast!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! You all are the best! I really appreciate all the prayers! Love you!

~Elder Burr

 The Vrooms

 The Fiedtkous

 Sleeping on the floor in the kitchen.

(Not sure why)

The last week with the Paramaribo district.

Elder Hardy, Elder Lewis, Elder Hood, Elder Burr, Sister Jorgensen, Sister Parker, Sister ?, & Sister Walsh

Transfer Calls!

Hey everyone! Fawaka? Hope it's all good in the Hood! ;) Haha since my companion is Elder Hood... Terrible joke oh well!

Elder Hood is getting transferred to Wanika Central and he's opening that area up with a new Elder coming in who has been serving in Guyana. He's going to kill it out there for sure I know it. Such an amazing missionary! I'm staying in Paramaribo South with Elder Van Den Herik from the Netherlands. A little nervous but I'm sure that I'll grow a lot and my Dutch will improve like crazy! Should be a good experience.

We had a good week and such good lessons with Astrid and Eevert. Talked about the Sabbath day and they are totally willing to do all that they can to follow it. So cool to see! They're progressing great and came to church again and are getting ready for their date on March 26th! Very excited for them. Lilian is also looking for other work and we find out this week. Lots of prayers for her. If she can find other work then she can come to church every week which would be so great! Very excited to see their progression. Sad that Elder Hood is leaving but I know that it's happening for a reason and that transfer calls are inspired. Excited to get to know Elder Van Den Herik!

On Friday we were going to Ivaldo and Remario showed up and told us that something told him that he had to come over to Ivaldo's and man was that a miracle! We had a lesson next with a Less active from Santo Domingo and she speaks only Spanish and Sranen and the person who was going to come with us canceled... So Remario saved us since he can speak Sranen! He stayed with us for the rest of the night and bore such powerful testimonies! He's such a great guy and is planning on going on a mission soon! He's 17!

I went on a fun exchange with Elder Hardy on Wednesday and we did a LOT of contacting for here in Suriname. 5 hours in the hot Suriname sun! So yep I got sunburned but we taught some cool people and helped them out!

I'm going to miss Elder Hood a lot and he's taught me so much! He's an amazing missionary and is going to kill it in Wanika Central!

That was our week and I hope that you all had great weeks as well! Love you all!

~Elder Burr

 Elder Lewis hanging my Dodger's pillowcase.  (He's not a fan!)

 Valentine's package from my family.

Remario!  He came teaching with us and is a boss!