Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Marc's email 4/16/2012
Sounds like a bumpin week back at la casa. Matt and Dad sound like they have a handful of problems after that lightning bolt jacked Maxine up but oh well stuff happens. This week was really good. We started off by going to Guadalajara which was awesome as always. It was a little bit rough getting there but all in all we got there.
Tired. But we got there. That will be a story for when I am home.
Anyway Elder Johnson and I are back here in Santiago trying to do work. He is from Arizona and was in school plays in high school... You can all assume how he is but all it all he is a great kid. We will have a good change. We were able to find several people these past few days and we had many people in the church on sunday. They are all people that will hopefully get baptized in the next few weeks. One major problem that we have here in Santiago is that there are several people who desire everything about the gospel but many of their wives or husbands are not so down. They threaten to leave them if they go to church or they dont let us visit them very often. We have found several people who have been threatened by their husbands and it truly is so sad. Now I understand why the Lord has given us the Law of Chastity. He always wants to protect His children and when we dont obey that is when He cant obey us. The obedience is crucial in this life if we want to succeed. That is a huge lesson that I have learned so far and up until now it has helped me out alot. Mom I have not received any packages for a while but I am sure that when Pres comes to do interviews he will bring them if you sent them a while ago. I dont need anything thanks though! Just living the dream out here in Santiago. Well Mom and Family I love you. Thanks for everything and especially the prayers. Until next week.
Elder Burr
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Marc's email 4/9/2012
Mom and family,
Happy Easter one day late. It truly was a great week and a great Easter. On the mission here in Mexico it is not very easy to realize that it is Easter. All the people just use the vacation time to drink with their family and go to the beach but for us as missionaries it was an incredible experience. This whole week was just full of good stuff. On thursday Elder Mangum and I were in the middle of our planning session and the idea came to my mind to go teach the gospel to prisoners. So we went to the prison here in Santiago and presented ourselves with the director. He recognized who we were and told us that he would love to have us go by and talk with them. So on Saturday we went to the prison, got the body pat down and got let in. The prison had like a courtyard type deal where we had a table and about
30 men gathered around listening. These men were some of the most respectful men I have ever dealt with. All of them shook our hands, told us good morning then went and sat down. We talked about the faith and repentance and had one of them say the closing prayer. We left several Book of Mormon and other stuff and the men were pretty happy.
They gave us gifts and told us they wanted us to return on a day when their family is there to be able to talk with the family. That is exactly what we wanted. The prisoners cant go to church so they cant get baptized quite yet but their families can so hopefully soon we will see the results we are hoping for. It was an awesome experience for me. apart from that we have several things going on. Today we had changes and Elder Mangum is bouncing out. We will be leaving tonight at 11pm to go to Guadalajara for the concilio then I will be returning on wed. with my new comp. Still dont know who it will be. This was a great change with Elder Mangum and I. Although we did not reach the goals we placed, we both agree that we have never worked harder it our entire missions than we did in this change. The Lord has blessed us and is pleased. I love Him and love His Atonement. I love His Gospel and His prophets that he has sent here to guide us. I love all of you.
Keep it real and stuff
Elder Burr
Happy Easter one day late. It truly was a great week and a great Easter. On the mission here in Mexico it is not very easy to realize that it is Easter. All the people just use the vacation time to drink with their family and go to the beach but for us as missionaries it was an incredible experience. This whole week was just full of good stuff. On thursday Elder Mangum and I were in the middle of our planning session and the idea came to my mind to go teach the gospel to prisoners. So we went to the prison here in Santiago and presented ourselves with the director. He recognized who we were and told us that he would love to have us go by and talk with them. So on Saturday we went to the prison, got the body pat down and got let in. The prison had like a courtyard type deal where we had a table and about
30 men gathered around listening. These men were some of the most respectful men I have ever dealt with. All of them shook our hands, told us good morning then went and sat down. We talked about the faith and repentance and had one of them say the closing prayer. We left several Book of Mormon and other stuff and the men were pretty happy.
They gave us gifts and told us they wanted us to return on a day when their family is there to be able to talk with the family. That is exactly what we wanted. The prisoners cant go to church so they cant get baptized quite yet but their families can so hopefully soon we will see the results we are hoping for. It was an awesome experience for me. apart from that we have several things going on. Today we had changes and Elder Mangum is bouncing out. We will be leaving tonight at 11pm to go to Guadalajara for the concilio then I will be returning on wed. with my new comp. Still dont know who it will be. This was a great change with Elder Mangum and I. Although we did not reach the goals we placed, we both agree that we have never worked harder it our entire missions than we did in this change. The Lord has blessed us and is pleased. I love Him and love His Atonement. I love His Gospel and His prophets that he has sent here to guide us. I love all of you.
Keep it real and stuff
Elder Burr
Marc's email 4/2/2012
Sup family,
If you think april fools day is a stupid day in the states, come celebrate it here. Oh wait it doesnt exist. But conference was as tight as ever. I loved being able to feast on the words of Christ and His prophets. It is even better as a missionary because everything that was said can be applied to the people here. That is why God has called prophets, to guide us and help us make it back to our Heavenly Father. Thomas S. Monson is truly a man of God and I feel honored to be able to carry his name to these people here and defend him as our loyal leader and prophet. I enjoyed the Prophets talk on the plan of salvation. That is exactly what these people need to know here in my area. This life is not everything and it really does not matter what happens in this life as long as we are willing to keep on. All in all though it was an incredible conference. We were able to have several investigators in the church so it was even better. We should be baptizing Maria Guadalupe this weekend and Jose Arturo the 14. I hope all goes as planned, sometimes people just make up their mind to not get baptized which is frustrating but the only thing we can do is keep on trying. This week we were able to perform an exorcism where we had to cast out a demon. It was probably one of the darkest, scariest things that we have ever had to do. Satan is real. He is willing to possess any body that will let him in. Needless to say I am grateful to have the priesthood and God on my side. That always makes things better. Well family I love you all and thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts. Gotta bounce.
Elder Burr
If you think april fools day is a stupid day in the states, come celebrate it here. Oh wait it doesnt exist. But conference was as tight as ever. I loved being able to feast on the words of Christ and His prophets. It is even better as a missionary because everything that was said can be applied to the people here. That is why God has called prophets, to guide us and help us make it back to our Heavenly Father. Thomas S. Monson is truly a man of God and I feel honored to be able to carry his name to these people here and defend him as our loyal leader and prophet. I enjoyed the Prophets talk on the plan of salvation. That is exactly what these people need to know here in my area. This life is not everything and it really does not matter what happens in this life as long as we are willing to keep on. All in all though it was an incredible conference. We were able to have several investigators in the church so it was even better. We should be baptizing Maria Guadalupe this weekend and Jose Arturo the 14. I hope all goes as planned, sometimes people just make up their mind to not get baptized which is frustrating but the only thing we can do is keep on trying. This week we were able to perform an exorcism where we had to cast out a demon. It was probably one of the darkest, scariest things that we have ever had to do. Satan is real. He is willing to possess any body that will let him in. Needless to say I am grateful to have the priesthood and God on my side. That always makes things better. Well family I love you all and thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts. Gotta bounce.
Elder Burr
Marc's email 3/26/2012
Well just checkin in from another great week of missionary service.
This week has been rather interesting to say the least. Just let me break it down a little bit. So the branch that I am serving in is not a very consistant branch. Some weeks we have like 90 people in church and other weeks we have like 20. We have always brought investigators to church so that ups the attendance a little bit. So this week was one of those weeks where there were only like 20 people in church and I was able to give a talk on the Sabbath Day. Probably the number one most broken commandment here in mexico so I had to just lay out some doctrine and tell them that is is not allowed to buy your hot tortillas or chiles on sunday. Needless to say that after church we saw several members go to the store ha. Oh well hopefully the Lord has mercy on them. Also we were able to put another movie in the plaza which was awesome. We passed The Testaments and it was an awesome turn out. We had several people there, many of them were crying after seeing the Living Christ come here to the Americas. We were able to get some directions. Also we had an investigator show up to church named Luis Arturo. he showed up with some tats and sick diamond earrings. He expressed his desire to change so we will be going with him tomorrow. Also Ivan and Gladys are going to get married and baptized this weekend along with Maria Guadalupe. Should be an awesome week. This week I have learned a ton as I have been reading in the book of 3 Nephi about the visit that Christ made to this continent. It truly was a miracle, one that I would have loved to witness. With conference coming up so quick I am pretty stoked to here from the Prophets voice. We just got informed that if we dont have investigators there we wont be able to watch it so it looks like we gotta hit the streets in the search of the escogidos. I love you all and hope everything is going well on the home front. Keep it real!
Elder Burr
This week has been rather interesting to say the least. Just let me break it down a little bit. So the branch that I am serving in is not a very consistant branch. Some weeks we have like 90 people in church and other weeks we have like 20. We have always brought investigators to church so that ups the attendance a little bit. So this week was one of those weeks where there were only like 20 people in church and I was able to give a talk on the Sabbath Day. Probably the number one most broken commandment here in mexico so I had to just lay out some doctrine and tell them that is is not allowed to buy your hot tortillas or chiles on sunday. Needless to say that after church we saw several members go to the store ha. Oh well hopefully the Lord has mercy on them. Also we were able to put another movie in the plaza which was awesome. We passed The Testaments and it was an awesome turn out. We had several people there, many of them were crying after seeing the Living Christ come here to the Americas. We were able to get some directions. Also we had an investigator show up to church named Luis Arturo. he showed up with some tats and sick diamond earrings. He expressed his desire to change so we will be going with him tomorrow. Also Ivan and Gladys are going to get married and baptized this weekend along with Maria Guadalupe. Should be an awesome week. This week I have learned a ton as I have been reading in the book of 3 Nephi about the visit that Christ made to this continent. It truly was a miracle, one that I would have loved to witness. With conference coming up so quick I am pretty stoked to here from the Prophets voice. We just got informed that if we dont have investigators there we wont be able to watch it so it looks like we gotta hit the streets in the search of the escogidos. I love you all and hope everything is going well on the home front. Keep it real!
Elder Burr
Marc's email 3/19/2012
Hello my dearest mother,
It sounds like you got a little taste of the life out of the states in the boonies huh? It is an awesome experience being able to walk into a house like that and find a humble family that is only looking for something better in life. There are several people like that and the Lord is always willing to hold out his loving hand and bring them back to the fold. I am so proud of Matt and for the work that I know he did in the mission. There are few missionaries that do what he did. He is a stud. A little bit about this last week. I have honestly never worked so hard to see so little success. Elder Mangum and I have been thinking, praying, and putting our faith in God, more than I ever have in my life. We were able to put a few movies in the Plaza here in Santiago which was an incredible experience. hundreds of people walked by and saw the event and left pretty impacted. This week we have several people who will be baptized but some prayers this way would sure be a help. The zone is also getting attacked by satan. So many missionaries that have no desire to work. Today we were able to help several of them and I am positive that this week will be a ton better.
Well family I love you all. Mom and Dad thanks for everything. Matt bring sexy back.
Elder Burr
It sounds like you got a little taste of the life out of the states in the boonies huh? It is an awesome experience being able to walk into a house like that and find a humble family that is only looking for something better in life. There are several people like that and the Lord is always willing to hold out his loving hand and bring them back to the fold. I am so proud of Matt and for the work that I know he did in the mission. There are few missionaries that do what he did. He is a stud. A little bit about this last week. I have honestly never worked so hard to see so little success. Elder Mangum and I have been thinking, praying, and putting our faith in God, more than I ever have in my life. We were able to put a few movies in the Plaza here in Santiago which was an incredible experience. hundreds of people walked by and saw the event and left pretty impacted. This week we have several people who will be baptized but some prayers this way would sure be a help. The zone is also getting attacked by satan. So many missionaries that have no desire to work. Today we were able to help several of them and I am positive that this week will be a ton better.
Well family I love you all. Mom and Dad thanks for everything. Matt bring sexy back.
Elder Burr
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