Miracles!!!!

Hey everyone! Hope that you're still enjoying the rain in California while I've got the sun of Bonaire! Loving it here and just making the most of every moment!

Things are great in Bonaire! Loving it here and it's really good to be back. I missed the people here a lot and it's been so fun to be back with them! Still doing a lot of contacting, but things are going good and we have a couple cool people to teach so it's going well. We taught investigators Adi and Irene on Monday and brought Brother Mens with us and that was a really cool experience. It was so cool to see how much Brother Mens has grown and he did so awesome in the lesson! He testified how he came to know that the Book of Mormon is true and shared some spiritual experiences that he's had. He killed it! Those investigators are doing pretty well, and we just have to get them to church now! Step by step, but they are coming along and they are reading so they're going in the right direction! One of the coolest experiences that we had this week was when we were going to teach President and Sister DePalm. We were there and had dinner with them and were about to start the lesson when their neighbor (who is Dutch) came outside and asked if he could sit with us! Miracle!!! When I was here the first time in Bonaire, I had been trying to meet him so hard and went by like 7 times with no success or he just ignored us, but this time he asked if he could sit with us. How cool is that?! We had a really good lesson on God and he asked us questions about why we were on missions and how President and Sister DePalm became members (they are also both returned missionaries). His name is Martin and he was really cool and we just had a super spiritual experience with him that was awesome. Things here are great and I love the members!

Also on Saturday night, I got a call from President DePalm asking me to give a talk the next morning in church. Of course I said yes and I felt it went pretty well. I based it around Alma 37:6

 6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

It is through the small and simple things that we do each and every day that allow us to progress and to continue our spiritual experiences. one other scripture that I loved was D&C 64:33 

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33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. 

Keep on working hard and staying strong, even when the times are hard. You all are wonderful and I love you all! Keep on being awesome! Thanks for the support! Lobi!

~Elder Burr

 Bonaire!!!

Elder Burr and Elder Hardy

Bonaire!!!

Hey everyone! I'm back in Bonaire again! Who would've guessed that? I sure didn't but I'm loving it!

It's been a crazy week! I still had the shock that I was going back to Bonaire and it honestly did not seem real at all until the day that I left. I was with Elder Rasmusson for two days so I had to give him a crash course run down of the area and of everything that was happening so hopefully he's doing alright! He's back with Elder Lewis who was in the area before me, so I'm sure that things are going to go great. Then I left Friday morning and had to wake up at 2 in the morning for that and I got to see Elder Lewis at the airport and talk for him a bit which was awesome. I love Elder Lewis! We just have to stop playing tag now already and actually serve in the same country together! My flight got delayed like 5 times on Friday so I was supposed to get into Bonaire at 10 in the morning, but didn't end up getting there until 7 at night so that was a fun day at the airport. Spending 15 hours at an airport isn't really what I imagined a mission would be like, but I have one of the craziest missions ever so it's pretty normal now! I also figured out that every single time that I have been transferred on my mission, it has been to a different country! That's also pretty insane! But it is honestly so great to be back. We had church yesterday and seeing all the members again and seeing how excited they were to see me, made everything worth it. Seeing the Mens family, the Albus's, Zuster Noij, Genesis and Omar and so many other people just made my day and made me so happy! Church was great and the branch and the group are combined now, so it was packed in there! Great talks on missionary work and on the Sabbath Day. Also, on Saturday we helped out the branch with a branch activity of a car wash and barbecue! It was pretty fun and good to spend some time with the members again. Also for a spiritual experience, we went out contacting yesterday and one of the first people we talked to seemed super open to our message and he used to live in the Netherlands. The miracles are real already and I am super excited! Bring it on Bonaire!

Keep on being great and having daily spiritual experiences that will draw you closer to God! Every day we change so make sure you are changing for the better! I love you all! 

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~Elder Burr

 Good ol Bonaire

 Parker and Elder Hardy

You're Staying in Uitkijk.... Just Kidding!

Hey everyone! life is crazy and missions are awesome!

So I was staying but President Egbert literally just called me and said that he feels inspired to have me go back to Bonaire!  So I won't be here anymore! We had an awesome week this past week and had some really cool experiences so things are going great! We did service twice this week, once for Steve and Jolande and once for Broeder Bakker. With Steve and Jolanda we helped them make Podociri (Asai in English) which involved cleaning it, putting it into a machine,cleaning a bunch of things and getting some of it for ourselves! It's a superfood and is super good for you and just is pretty awesome! For Broeder Bakker, we helped him clean up some cars that he is going to work on and it went pretty well. He also made us some iguana which was my first time and it was super good! Tastes a lot like chicken but I might like iguana a little better haha. Steve and Jolanda also fed us which involved, roti and massala, chicken, deer and alligator so there was also some firsts for me! All was super good and some good memories as well! For spiritual experiences, there were also so many this week! We got to use our contact area a lot this week and saw some cool miracles from being there. Our investigators Miguel and Meredise are doing really well and are still reading out of the Book of Mormon every day, but sadly didn't make it to church which was a little disappointing. We saw one of our investigators Katie who felt the Spirit a lot as we were talking about the Book of Mormon and promised to read and pray about it so we are pumped for her. Sunday overall was just great! Not too many people came to church since it was pouring for most of the morning, but the meeting was so good! Zuster Libretto bore her testimony and was about to end it but the Spirit prompted her to say something and she talked about the need to be spiritually fed every day from reading the Book of Mormon and it was so cool! The Spirit was really strong and just confirmed the things that she said. As I went up to bear my testimony, I was talking about the small and simple things that help us to have great spiritual experiences every day and as I was talking, the Spirit taught me and guided my words and I learned another Spiritual truth. When Joseph Smith experienced the First Vision, he was reading from the scriptures and he prayed. From those small and simple things, he had one of the greatest spiritual experiences ever! We too can have great spiritual experiences from the small and simple things that we do each day.

Love you all and life is crazy! Missions are the best! Have a wonderful week! Lobi!

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~Elder Burr

Flat Tires!!

The area is doing well, but a big struggle this past week was in lots of things that took time out from proselyting. On Tuesday, I had to help Elder geigenmiller with the drivers license which took a ton of time away from our area and we also had 3 flat tires this week that were frustrating and took time away from getting out as well. Other than that, the area is doing pretty well, but almost no investigators came to church again which was another disappointment. It's been really hard getting them to church, especially the ones in Groningen. We're still working hard though and in faith and the investigators that we do have are reading and keeping commitments, but just not exercising the faith to come to church. Miguel is doing really well and is continuing to read so we're excited for him. Our active members are doing well though and recovered from their sicknesses so that was great and the talks given on Sunday were awesome! This area is so cool though! I love it here and we're seeing so much progress in our investigators in reading and praying and receiving answers, but they just have to take the leap of faith and to come to church. We're excited for this upcoming Sunday and are expecting a lot to come so we'll see what happens! A spiritual experience that I had this past week was with our investigator Meredise. We taught about the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon and committed her to be baptized and she said the typical, "I've already been baptized." But we talked about Priesthood Authority and testified of Joseph Smith and she was able to understand and accepted the baptismal date! She also had read which prepared her for the lesson, but it was just cool to see the Spirit work in her and teach her. Missions are just awesome and you have so many cool experiences every day! One other cool thing that happened is that we were guided by God to find a less active that we didn't know existed and he promised us in our lesson yesterday that he would read from the Book of Mormon and come to church next week. He really wants to change his life and is just great!

Life is going great and I'm just loving my mission here! Crazy that Tyler is home now! Time is just going too fast and I'm going to do my best to make these last months of my mission count! No regrets! You all are awesome! Love you all! Lobi!

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~Elder Burr

 Here are a few pictures finally!

 Parker and Elder Lunceford

The Book of Mormon is True!

Hey everyone! I hope that you had a wonderful week and are enjoying the rain if you live in California! You're getting more than Suriname!

We had a good week this past week and we really just worked hard and saw some cool miracles! We found this person named Jerrel and he was actually a referral from one of our investigators so we contacted him and he said we could come by sometime. So we went on a search for his house and finally found it in the jungle and I'm just going to say that he has the coolest house I've ever seen! He is completely self-sufficient! He has a solar panel for his electricity and gets his water from the rain and heats his water with wood fires. His place just looks so cool and he lives a simple life, but is so happy! We're pumped for him and his son and they've already started reading in the Book of Mormon so we're pretty pumped. One struggle this week was that all of our members got super sick! I don't know what happened! All of the sudden they just all got sick at the same time and two of them had talks in church but had to cancel them. It was pretty crazy! Probably the coolest thing that happened this week was with our investigator named Miguel. First of all he's awesome and has so many fruit trees and vegetable plants everywhere so we always have a ton of food to bring home from his house. He's a stud. But we committed him to read and pray and ask if the Book of Mormon is true. Well he did it and guess what? He got an answer!!!! He just brought it up before us asking about it and was so pumped! We are super excited and he is just progressing so well now! Ahhh! It's the best!

Also today we had some serious sporting with our zone and man I'm exhausted and out of shape! It's not so easy to run as it once was! I'm excited to get back into running when I get back home though but the time in the mission is going way too fast! That was our week though and we're excited for another great one!

Loving the mission and it's going by too fast as I've already said. Make sure you're reading every day out of the Book of Mormon! It'll help you always stay strong! love you all! Lobi!

-- 

~Elder Burr

*Can't access pictures on this computer so I will send them next week! Sorry!*

Area Conference!

Hey everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful week!

We had a good week this past week and had some cool things happen. We finally were able to visit all of our members this week and we had great spiritual experiences with them. For example we saw Brother Schipper and he just bore his powerful testimony on how this is the only true church. So cool to see that so many members are so strong and know that the Book of Mormon is true! We found a new person this week named Miguel and we had a few lessons with him and he accepted a baptismal invitation which is sweet! He's super humble and seems prepared to accept the gospel in his life. Very cool stuff and we're pumped for him. Romero is also doing great, but was out of town for most of the week so we couldn't see him. He's great though and is getting his bike this week to go to church! Super awesome stuff! I also got to go on an exchange with Elder White this week and he's doing awesome! Great missionary and he's grown so much in the few months that he's been on a mission. I'm surrounded by great missionaries and it's so cool to see and to be a part of them. Fenolia is also back! We finally got to see her again after a long time and she's doing well. We invited her to act in faith and to do what it takes to get to church and she accepted, so we're excited to see the miracles from it. One of the coolest experiences that we had though was with our investigator named Eddie. He was not sure what he needed to do since he just turned Christian and chose a church to go to, but then we came and have had powerful spiritual experiences with him. We very boldly told his and testifies that the only way to find out the truth for himself was to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. Super spiritual experience and we testified on how we came to know that this is the true church. Super awesome! Also yesterday we had a Carribean Area conference where Neil L Anderson, Elder Cornish, Elder Christensen and Linda Burton spoke to us over a broadcast and talked a lot about discipleship. Super awesome and it was great to see all the members again since we were all gathered together for it. Loved it and we are excited for a good week this upcoming week!

I hope that we are all doing our best to be true disciples of Christ! People are always watching and even if there aren't people around, God is always watching us as well! Love you all and I love this work! Nothing else I'd rather be doing! Lobi!

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~Elder Burr

*No pictures this week.  He was at a sketchy cyber cafe*

Zone Conferentie!

Hey everyone! How's life? I hope that everything is going well and that you're enjoying your 2017 up to this point!

We had a really good week this past week! We had zone conference this week and interviews with President Egbert and like every time, it was awesome!! Just so good and we made some changes in the mission that will just help me out as a zone leader a lot to have more time in my area and it was just all so good! The zone conference was a lot on planning and a little bit of the gathering of Israel and diligence and it was just a great boost to go out and work even harder and to find all the miracles that are out there waiting for us! We also have a really cool investigator that we are teaching named Romero and he's been progressing great! He's going back to the city today just for a couple days and he's going to bring his bike back so that he can bike to church on Sunday! What a stud! I love people that exercise faith and just do the right things! I did a lot of driving this past week in driving to zone conference and interviews and I think I've got the whole stick shift thing down finally. No problem anymore and driving home from zone conference was pretty crazy! We had the assistants to the President as well which added to the amount of people so here are the statistics of what I was driving:

13 missionaries

1 table

1 chair

125 Book of Mormon's

About 10 packages

It was a packed car! But no problems at all and we were all safe so that was a good time for sure! One cool experience that we had this week was that we were biking up to Groningen (about an hour bike ride) and I didn't even really pay attention to where I wanted to go for an appointment, but it was just like my bike was lead to go somewhere so I was just guided by the Spirit and we ended up at a less actives house and they just really needed us to come by. We were able to testify to her that God loves her no matter what and that she can receive strength in her trials through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Very cool to be guided by the Spirit and to know that we were meant to be there at that time! One other awesome thing was church on Sunday. The testimony meeting was just full of the Spirit and the lesson in the second hour was just incredible. You could feel everyone in the room getting so pumped to read the scriptures and to just feel that this is the true church. Don't really know how to describe it, but everyone just got so excited about the gospel!

That was our week this past week and we're pumped to be in our area the entire week this upcoming week!

I hope that you all know that God loves you and that Jesus Christ lives. I love you all and I know that this gospel is true! You all are the best! Have a wonderful week!

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~Elder Burr

 Little bit of Christmas

 My Surinamese drivers license!

 Elder Burr

My wall of quotes!