Matt's email 10/25/2010

Alright to start off I have to apologize for not informing anybody on transfers. I thought they were going to be on Monday, but turns out there were on Friday. It was a long week, but here we are. My new companion is Elder Orduña. It turns out that President was just punking me. He told me I was going to train or get a young latin, and he did neither. Elder Orduña is from Queens, New York. He speaks spanish perfectly and has 15 months on the mission. He loves to teach little kids how to behave themselves and the things they shouldn´t do. It is pretty funny actually to see the way all the moms react to him disciplining their kids. But he is a stud. He used to work at Zales as a jewelry salesman... Yep. And mom, yes he does know what a Hearts on Fire diamond is ha ha. Don´t ask me how I remembered that name, but you raised me well. Since he has been here in Albardón, we have already started to see miracles. On Saturday we went up to teach some investigators that we found a few weeks ago and while we were up in the area we decided to contact a few references. We went to one of the houses that we thought was a reference and started talking to the lady. She was super nice and after a few minutes of talking, she let us in. Inside the house were here 2 daughters and her sister, all of the age to be baptized. We started finding out what they needed in their lives and ended up teaching the message of the Restoration. We watched the video The Restoration and afterwards we put baptismal dates with all 4 of them for the 16 of November and they all accepted. Then after that we went to the family of Franco to start teaching them and met his 19 year old brother and 11 year old sister who also accepted dates for the 16. It was an awesome day for us. We are definitely going to get work done over here. We also say Mayra get confirmed and Franco got the Priesthood on Sunday, so that was just awesome. Missionary work is just way too fun when you have success, but when you don´t, it makes for some long, hard days.
About the interview I had with Elder Aidukaitis. We were just talking about the goals in my life and the things I want to accomplish on the mission. He taught me how I could do a really good plan of action to accomplish all the goals I have and he also taught me the importance of back up plans in case the main plan fails. It is hard to write, because the spirit that was there was what made is so special. But yeah that´s how it went. I was also thinking about the Christmas package. I don´t think I want anything to be honest. I think I might just buy some soccer shoes here at one of the stores and call it good. So if you see a hefty credit just sing a Christmas song or something and wish me a Merry Christmas. How does that sound?
Thanks so much for all the support that everyone has shown to me. I appreciate it so much. I´m sure Cam, Adam, and Ben can all relate. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love
Elder Burr