Marc's email 11/2/2010

Dear family,

So another week has come and gone and I dont know where the other 6 days went. I dont get how the time goes by so slow and fast at the same time but it does and it is awesome. This week was awesome. On our tuesday night devo a week ago elder scott came and talked to us about following the spirit and listening to it. He gave us a hand out thing that has like 40 points on ways to follow the spirit and i guarantee once the outside world gets a hold of it it will become scripture. I will try to send a copy home but the coolest part was when he bore his testimony. he started it off by saying he didnt want to close as elder scott but rather as an apostle of the Lord. He ended saying "He loves us. I love Him. I know Him." so pretty much an apostle said he has seen and knows Christ. The Spirit there was incredible. Not to mention his three apostolic blessings he gave to all the the missionaries. He gave us the gift of tongues pretty much saying that he does it through the apostolic power that he has he invoked it upon us. It was amazing. Sorry mom for not answering your questions in the dear elder last week i seemed to have gotten it after i emailed so i have to wait until right now. I loved the package and so did my district. The sobe energy drink thing was a miracle cause it has just a little caffeine in it and that worked miracles. Also the beef jerky i got is all gone. could be a hint for some more. I hear the Utah is creepin up on the BCS boards? that is tight. Also evan sounds like a ton of fun. No matter how old we get he will always just tell us to expect some pressure and some wiggling. I hope we are all used to it. Visas... I dont have mine yet but i think i will know by next pday a little bit more. If they think that i will get it within two weeks of when i am supposed to leave they will keep me here but if not they usually reassign. one kid i know got reassigned to Birmingham Alabama so it is very possible that i get sent out there with holy waffles. I am just ready to get out of here. i am at the point where we have learned all of the spanish lessons and I just need to practice. but i know the time will fly. My district couldnt be any better. I got put into a threesome companionship with elder gonzalez and it is so fun every day. I think the Lord knew that i couldnt handle this place with a bunch of met kids. Also 4 square is my new sport. I just make alliances and never lose.. It gets intense. But anway it sounds like you are all busy. let me know about Mike and stuff and Dad it sounds like you have some work ahead of you. 4 helicopters is going to be alot hopefully the landing can keep up or else clint and randy might be layin down the wood. hopefully randy doesnt unleash the fury that would suck for them. But hey at least you are working and that is a blessing. I finished the BoM this week and that book is so good. I read it in about 3 weeks and i love it. As a missionary it was so powerful and I know without a doubt that it is true. I love the book of Alma and pretty much the whole thing. The people in that book are studs. I also know that the Lord answers prayers. this last week I Have had 6 prayers answered and i know He answers our prayers. I love this work and I cant wait to get out and get people to realize what really matters in life. Its crazy the change i have felt in my life and i love it. I know before this i was completely different and that was definately not worth it. I love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and i love being His hands and His missionary. But im out i have to go eat some nasty food. wouldnt mind some protein bars and some snacks.. Mom and Dad you are the best i love you guys so much. Every day i realize how amazing you are and i wish i honestly realized how amazing you are before this. but anyway family keep on keepin on. i love you all.

Elder Burr

Matt's email 11/1/2010

Man halloween definitley isn´t as cool here as it was back home. The people here had no idea what it was, but it was a great tool to use to talk to people and share the message of the gospel, so it was all good. This week was awesome. We have continued finding a lot of new people and many of them have been committed to baptism. With the help of the Lord, we will be seeing many miracles here in Albardon. I believe the greatest miracle of the week came just yesterday. After church and the siesta we set out to contact a few references that we had received. It was all going pretty well until the last guy. He was a brother of one of the members in the ward and he and his wife had recently lost a baby. He lived in a shack. The dumpiest house that I have ever seen, but he was still too pridefull to let the missionaries in. It was pretty hard being rejected by someone like that, but we continued, trying our hardest to help the people. A few hours later we saw a lady out watering her front dirt, and me, being the professional dirt waterer that I am, asked her if I could help. She accepted and bam, the Spirit took over. Before I knew it she had turned off the water and told us to sit down. We began talking about the church and explaining where it was when she said, ¨Oh the big beatiful church on the Nacional? I always thought that it was just an abandoned building. I have always wanted to go inside, but nobody is ever there.¨ As a missionary, you dream for times like this. People that are willing to come to church without putting up a fight. Then after saying that, her 18 year old daughter came out and her mom explained everything that we had told her and the daughter told us that she has dreamed about going into the church. It was amazing. They both accepted to come next sunday, and they both seemed really excited. The only problem is that the daughter recently converted to an Evangelical church, so we have to save her before she goes too far. It was an awesome experience and taught me that following the Spirit is the only way to do this work. You can knock every door in the city 10 times over again, but it won´t do you any good until you have the Spirit.

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing good back at home. It sounded like you all had a very happy halloween. It seems like the past 10 halloweens have been rainy and cold. Maybe it is because of the global warning. One last quick fact... The ex president of Argentina passed away on Wednesday. You would have thought that he was best friends with everyone in this country. Everything closed down for 2 days to mourn his loss. These people will use whatever excuse they can to get out of work. You used to think that Marcus and I are lazy, you should see an Argentina. Anyway I love you all. I pray for you daily. I know the Lord lives and He directs this church. The Holy Ghost is the spirit of God given to all who are worhty and have been baptized. It is the most valuable gift we could every have.

 

Have a great week

Elder Burr

Saying Goodbye to Marc

I never posted these pictures of Marc's Kneaders breakfast.  All the grandkids will grow so much while he's gone!  We love you, Marc.

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

Marc's email 10/19/2010

So it sounds like your crew was really met. that is too bad i would have
finished that job in probably a day cause when production needs to happen i
produce. but hey at least you are working and not sitting. How is the
campaign going? is he going to win or what? this is my letter to both you
and mom just so you know but i hope all is well.  somehow
everybody in this place is sick besides me.. nobody gets it but i wont
complain. The food is terrible yesterday i ate bowls of cereal cause i
couldnt handle the nasty chicken they tried to make me eat. at least the
food in mexico will be better than here. i dont think i need much. just some
life saver mints perhaps some beef jerky and some gummy treats. other than
that i have my 72 hour kit in my room full of cookies and such. my grow a
head is awesome it is in my classroom and has i think three hairs. it will
be a good addition. im sittin right next to kyle right now and he is doing
good. it is hard and he sees that and he is just taking every day as it
comes. that is how you get by in this place. oh yeah will somebody hook me
up with the scores to football games and the top 25 maybe? that would be
cool. Also i know how it feels now to sleep on the street cause that is how
uncomfortable my bed is. but i love it here stilll and every day is better
than the last. I am reading in the BoM and alma and ammon are easily my
boys. if i can be half of the men they were i would have a successful life.
I cant wait to get down to mexico to teach the people the plan of salvation
and cry repentance unto them. No news on the visa but it definitely is not
looking too good. but ill go where i am called. i love this work and the
promises i am given. i know i am a representative of Jesus Christ and oh man
what an honor that is. I love it. I never thought i really would but i love
it. the spanish is good i try to speak it all day every day and that is
working out pretty good. i can usually go all day with saying 20 words in
english but i know when i leave i will just be stunned. well i am going to
go but i hope you all have a good safe week and i love you all. i pray for
you all and wish the best. you are the best parents and family in the world
i couldnt have asked for better. no temas. its my new saying its tight it
means no fear. its how i live. love you all

Matt's email 10/18/2010

So this week was perhaps the hardest, most  confusing, most rewarding week on the mission. I know those are 3 contradictory statements but that pretty much sums it all up. On Tuesday I went down to Mendoza and we had a leadership meeting with Elder Aidukaitis. Everyone was getting pretty worried about it because he likes to drop a lot of cain on the missionaries, but it all went pretty well. He started out by asking us if we wanted to be a mission that stays where it is at or if we want to be a mission that is always moving forward. We chose the obvious answer and he then went on to explain a lot about the process of setting goals. He told us that if we had the necessary amount of faith each missionary will be able to baptize once a week. That was pretty humbling to hear, but I am going to put the promise to the test. He taught us a lot about how to make a plan to be able to reach a goal. Then on Wednesday I had to do an interview over in another area and on Thursday we had the zone leaders over to do interviews for us. On Friday we went down as a zone to Mendoza for the zone conference and it was based a lot about the same stuff we talked about. I have come to realize the importance of goals in my life and it has been a huge blessing. The coolest part of the week happened right after Elder Aidukaitis finished and President asked me to go have an interview with him and Elder Aidukaitis. To sum things up it was me, Elder Aidukaitis, and President Lindahl in a room having a private interview in spanish. It was incredible being in the same room as someone from the first quorum of the Seventy. He is an amazing man and taught me a lot. Then on Friday night we got back to San Juan and I had to do some more interviews for the zone leaders. We ended up sleeping on their floor because we got back super late. One of the interviews was just ridiculous. I don´t even want to write about it it was so bad. This lady was just crazy. But then on Saturday we had a couple baptisms which went really well. Sunday shows up, one of the investigators that got baptized didn´t show up until Sacrament Meeting and then we find out she drank a little alcohol after her baptism. She didn´t end up getting confirmed, although President Lindahl says she should have and things just went down. We are hoping and praying to get her confirmed on Sunday. That´s one of the incredible blessings of the Atonement is that it is infinite and available to everyone. But yeah that is pretty much the week in a nut shell. As a zone we won a competition and will each be receiving a belt with our names on them and an asado provided by president. That should be super legit. It´s been a week of miracles. Thank you all so much for the emails. It is awesome to hear from the real world. Things are going great here. I am loving it. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Love
Elder Burr

Marc's email 10/12/2010

Hey mom how are you? i hope your week was good and you got everything done that you had to. My week here was really good just still doing the same thing every day. laundry right now is not fun just because the washing machines blow and the dryers dont really dry but oh well. This week i have been studying in mosiah and i love what king benjamin said. It relates to that question you put in your email and we will always be eternally indebted to our Lord. just when we try to pay him back he blesses us more. Im pretty sure that is the scripture but i wrote you and dad a letter that has the scriptures. In the scriptures the way to get back is to have faith, repent, baptism, and receive the holy ghost and endure to the end. that is how you get in that is why we get it. If we have faith that we are always doing what is right the lord will be pleased with our efforts and ours will be the kingdon of God. As long as we strive to be like our brother Jesus Christ we will be worthy in the eyes of God. Serving others like Jesus did is what i am doing now. One thing i know for sure is that i represent my Savior Jesus Christ and His name is always on my heart. I will not do anything to defile his name. I got matts email and it sounds like he is doing really well. I hope he is cause he deserves it. Missionary work is hard and i know how hard we works. He deserves the best for his work. Heather wrote me and it sounds like her family is doing good. Lucy seems to be a genius already i could count the words she actually said to me on one hand though. i will come home and she will realize how cool i am. how is the rest of the family? lilfe here is good i have learned to love my comp and district. They are all really cool and they make this place so much better. my teachers are awesome and just altogether it is amazing. I have been getting random packages from random people but that is cool.  but i dont really realize it id rather just serve the lord for my remaining time and not worry about having a girl to write or anything. best decision i have ever made. But i love you mom thank you for everything. keep praying for me and matt. I know it is tough and I can feel your prayers. I hope you have a good week