Matt's most recent pictures

Matt's email 8/16/2010

Well here I is writing the weekly update from the good ol´ Rivadavia Argentina. This past week was way good and Elder Williams and I were just teaching away. This difficult thing about this place is that the investigators live so far away that itis hard to teach them as much as we would like. On Tuesday it was the birthday of one of the members so Elder Williams and I made some chocolate and dulce de leche bars. Can anybody imagine that? Me making food for somebody else? Yeah it really happened and the members loved them. It was definitely a success. There was nothing really cool that happened this week. On Wednesday and Friday we had to travel to San Martin for a meeting about the whole change to the mission. It was pretty good but super frustrating. It was put on by the assistants and every question they asked was directed to Elder Williams and I. We were both pretty fed up with that by the end but it is what it is. We also had to go to Mendoza on Tuesday for Elder William´s foot. He has had some wart/growth deal inbetween his toes and has gone to the dermatologist over 15 times trying to get it taken off but it has never worked. Basically if he can´t fight through he will have to return to the states to get it removed and then come back. That would not be good if that happened.

Mom that´s sweet that you are going to SF to spend your big 50.  It is also pretty ironic because just this morning we were talking about Wicked in the pensh and trying to remember some of the songs. It was pretty cool. You just have to make sure dad doesn´t fall asleep this time. I am convinced that although this is the fourth time he has ¨seen¨ it, he has never actually seen all of it. That is also sweet that Marc and Kyle are doing good and preparing themselves. I remember going to the Salt Lake Temple with Grandma Burr and it was incredible. I wish I would have gone more, but what can you do? Also I got the package with the Ensigns and the letters from the family. That was a pleasant surprise and tell jake rothfels that I really appreciated his letter. Thanks for everything that you are doing for me. I love being a missionary and although it is by far the hardest thing I have done, I am starting to see some of the blessings. Continue praying for the people here. I hope you have a very happy birthday Mom!! This one is for you! The clock keeps ticking ha ha. I love you

Love

Elder Burr

Matt's email 8/9/2010

So this week has been a crazy/super buzy week. On monday we had transfers like I told you and surprisingly I ended up being transferred. I was super excited because Godoy Cruz was really starting to test my patience, and as we are all aware, I kind of lack in that area. But anyways I got transferred to another city in Mendoza called Rivadavia. The city here has a way sweet set up and the area is huge, which is good, because in San Ignacio we could walk from border to border in about 20 minutes. The branch here is also incredible. The ward mission leader is a recent convert that just hooks us up with references from his family so our days are pretty occupied with that. My companion is super legit as well. His name is Elder Williams from Sandy. He has been here for like 10 months or something like that and there is never a dull moment. It is also nice because his dad is a corporate pilot and flies a Hawker 900 so now we have stuff to talk about. Its nice having someone I can relate to and not having to talk about which hair product has better anti frizz control. We are expecting to have a great transfer and I hope it all goes well.
We also had a pretty cool experience this week. We went by a house of a kid that just barely got baptized to see how he was doing. We walked in and were chillin for just a minute then his mom came out and informed us that her nephew really wanted to get baptized like his cousin and he already has permission from his mom to go to church and get baptized so now we are just waiting to teach him. It was way sweet and we are excited to start teaching him. We have a bunch of investigators here that are pretty close to baptism and we are hoping that the Lord will help us out.
I love you and hope everyone has a fantastic week.
Love
Elder Burr

Matt's email 8/2/2010

 This week was pretty legit here in San Ignacio. We still don´t have very many people to teach consistently but we found a few people that have potential. We will see what happens with transfers and all that but there is hope for this area. The weather is also getting a little better. We wake up to frozen water pipes so our showers are always burning hot because we never have cold water. I would definitely rather have hot than cold so I can´t complain. My companion and I are getting along pretty well. I don´t know what will happen if I have to be with him 6 more weeks but it´s all good. 

Thanks for the love and the prayers. I love you all. keep on keepin on!
Love
Elder Burr

An email for Matt

I would love it if some of our family and Matt's friends took just a few minutes this week and sent him an email.  He has been sick and it sounds like he just needs a little love from us at home.  We are so blessed to have the gospel and each other.  Let's share some love with Matt this week!

It is my understanding that he can't open any email that is not from his immediate family.  I would be happy to forward your messages to him without reading them.  Just put "to Matt" or something in the subject line, and I'll just automatically hit the forward button.  My email is byutaylor {at} comcast {dot} net.

Please, please, please!!!!

Matt's email 7/26/2010

This week was pretty good despite all the health problems. I don´t think I ever told you this but there has been a worldwide change in the way that the missionaries teach. They found that even with Preach My Gospel, a lot of peopole are still memorizing the lessons. The whole purpose of PMG was to use the Spirit more and so the First Presidency sent out a 70 page email directing mission presidents on how to do that. So this whole week all the leaders had a 4 day meeting deal and learned all about the new method and we have been learning and applying it. Not much has changed it just makes teaching with the Spirit a little more accessible. They also changed the schedule so that we have zone conference every 3 months instead of every transfer which means that the mail gets all messed up the basically everything slows down. It´s going to be great though. The weather has really been helping out. It gets pretty warm in the middle of the day but the nights are still pretty chilly. 

 I´m doing great here and I´m trying my hardest to stay posiitive through it all. I love you guys and hope you have an incredible week.

Love

Elder Burr

Matt's email 7/19/2010

On Wednesday morning we woke up to like 3 inches of snow on the ground. It was really something else. The members said that they haven´t seen snow like that before and everyone in the city was outside. 

This week was pretty good though. We basically dropped all the investigators we had and started from new. Everyone that we had been teaching pretty much lost interest and nobody accepted any of the baptismal dates that we tried setting so we set out this week knocking doors everyday searching for those who are prepared. We came across a family who was baptized like 5 years back but are now inactive and the mom is a chain smoker. It´s way sad because the daughter served a mission and all that but now they all work for the garbage company. Anyway to make a long story short the mom is quitting smoking and they both came to church yesterday. To me that is just as good as having an investigator in church so we were pretty content. 

 Well that´s about all I got for the week. Hopefully next week will be a little more interesting with transfers and everything. Tell everyone to keep on keepin on. I love you all. Thanks so much for everything!
Love
Elder Burr