Marc's email 5/28/2012

Hey mom, Sounds like everything there is going really well. The family is all together and everybody is having fun. I am pretty sure that those experiences are about the only ones that I miss. Honestly. I never realized how good I felt being surrounded by my family. I loved it and will love it once I am back in the mix. Sounds like Matt got met on the first date situation. Its alright though, if she wasnt going to progress towards an eternal marriage, it is always better to just drop her. That is one thing learned in the mission. I am proud or him. As for this past week... the weather just got hotter. It was supposed to rain but I think the rain just saw me and forgot to get me wet. It just said that I had enough sweat on my face and I didnt need it. So it just moved right on by. It has only gotten hotter haha. My new companion is Elder Rivera. When I was in Estancia I lived with him for two changes and he is a good kid. He works hard and is willing to learn so that is good. We are still zone leaders here in Santiago. We were able to finally baptize Viridiana this last week which was awesome. She had some challenges in the week but in the end she ended up making a covenant with God. I was able to baptize her and I tell you what, baptizing never gets old. Now we just have to focus on getting the other people we are teaching in the pila bautismal. It will be a great challenge. I have been here for about three months now and yes mother I only have 2 changes left. It is unreal to think about... That is why I hardly think about it ha. But I have a lot of time left to just put my head down and go to work so I am excited. I love what I am doing and I have seen many changes in my life which is incredible. I am happy and have realized this is the best choice I have ever made. Thank you all for putting up with me before the mission. You are all the best. Ps Happy birthday adam, ben, shea, cam, coop, lucy,Nixon, and everybody else that had their birthday in this month. You are all awesome! Well im out... talk to you next week. Love you all Elder Burr

Marc's email 5/7/2012

Well it sure sounds like DC was sweet. Sounds like lil Nixon is doing well. Awesome name choice by the way. That is a sweet name. Should have thrown a marcus in there somewhere but maybe the next one? Just some info. I will be skyping at 530 on sunday so everybody be ready! If you notice that my shirt is a little yellow or my face is a little red.... its cause thats how they are. Hopefully hubey can be there. Mom I just want our pedigree chart from our family. WIth grandparents and great grandparents etc. This last week was awesome! We were planning on baptizing Viridiana but she ended up smoking on friday.. She will be baptized shortly. On saturday we went to eat with the family polanco who had just killed their pig so we could eat it. We were eating pork rinds and ribs until we couldnt breath. Anyway as we were there we got a call from our president saying that his baptism had been approved. Jose Polanco was waiting for a letter from the First Presidency approving his baptism and he finally got it! So he was baptized this saturday and it was an amazing spiritual experience. You could really tell that he was repented and all he wanted was to get baptized and in one year get sealed to his family so I am hoping to come back in a year to go to their sealing. We also had the 5 de mayo party outside of our house all night saturday night. It started at 9 and ended at 8 the next day. 50 bands came in and on every corner there was a band playing. It was so annoying. Didnt sleep much that night needless to say. But now we are ready for the week that has started. We will be diligent and faithful. We will search Gods children and teach them the everlasting Gospel and I will love every second of it. I love you all and hope you are all doing well. I'm out until Sunday when I will be seeing your happy faces again! Elder Burr=

Marc's email 4/30/2012

So you all tell me my letters sound the same... pretty sure yours are too! Always telling me you are on vacation and just doing the same thing we have all done 5 years ago. Its alright though I hope matt is just thrilled being there with the two of you and just him. Ill tell you what, that is a blast! So what does that punk do these days? What car is he cruising around in, who does he hang out with, what does he eat, how is his accent, how does he smell. I hope he smelled as bad as all of my other brothers when they came home from other countries. How is the family? EVerybody just keeping it real or what? Just so you know, I will be calling the 13. Here nobody knew when mothers day was in the states so we thought it was the 6 but aparrently not. Mom I have a challenge for you. I am interested in having you look for our family geneology and sending it to me somehow. Would that be possible? About this week. We were able to baptize Said this week and he is pretty happy. We did the interview for Dairet but her dad still hasnt given her permission se we have to wait for her. We are hoping to get Maria Guadalupe married this week and baptized and we are still waiting for the letter for the hermano Jose Polanco. Pres said that this thursday we should know something so hopefully we can get it all done this week. Other than that we have just been working hard. It has been hot here and people have been hiding in their houses but we have been able to find several people and we are teaching alot. I am a happy guy. Well I hope you are all happy and doing well. I am great out here on the battle front. I love you all. Elder Burr

Marc's email 4/23/2012

Mom don't you fret, we are protected out here by a pretty powerful source. This week was a little more tranquilo. First of all it sounds like everything back home is just rollin right along. Everybody is happy and Matt is just sittin it out trying to get some chicks. Poor man, his canteen has probably desintegrated. That makes two of us I guess. Its alrigh,t he is a good guy. Charlotte sounds like she is falling into the tight little girl ranks saying sup dog. How are cam and coop? Sounds like coop and I are going to have to have some bonding one on one time. Its good though I am stoked for it. I hope you all enjoy your trip to DC. It will be good for you all to see ben and olivia and kids. So a little bit about our week here. We have several people that we are teaching that have all accepted baptism. Maria Guadalupe should be getting married this week and baptized. Gladys should also be getting married and baptized. Saíd also was able to go to church again this weekend and he has a baptismal date for this weekend so he should also get baptized. I was waiting for our peeps to show up to church when a girl showed up that elder Mangum and I were teaching like a month ago. She showed up with a Young Womens medalion necklace thing and told us her dad had given her permission and she wanted to get baptized this weekend. We also have Giovana who told us she was going to leave her husband and get baptized a soon as possible. If you havent realized almost every single person has problems with their husbands and are not married...... Such a frustrating thing to have to deal with. Especially when the husbands dont want much to do with the Gospel. But everything seems to be going well. I dont know how. God has just heard the prayers of two of His servants and has blessed us abundantly. I know He lives and He is with Elder Johnson and I. Every day I feel my relationship with Him grow stronger and stronger. I feel that I walk by His side everyday. It is an amazing feeling that comes after much prayer, meditation, fasting etc. but is is very worth it! I love Him. I know Him. That is the greatest thing I have ever accomplished in my life, coming to know my Heavenly Father. I hope you are all on the quest as well. There is nothing more important that you can do. I love you all and wish the best for you this week. I'm out Elder Burr

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

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

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