My Little Mexican

February 16, 2015 (week 25 in Argentina)

Hola de Argentina, Mendoza!!!

My new area- Mendoza

As you well may know, I am happily living and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.  What a wonderful time that we have this great gospel in our day and age where we can bring so much happiness into our lives.  I thank my Father in Heaven, who loves me dearly enough to give me the best things for my well-being.  I invite every reader to come closer to God and their families through being actively engaged in the simple truths of this gospel.

 

Here in Mendoza it’s somewhat different than what I am used to.  It is very dangerous and we have to be careful at night.  We have to make critical choices from avoiding certain areas of the area at night and having to face yet many vicious dogs. I have seen many new things from teaching the poorest of the poor and I find myself humbled yet again.  I look around every day here in the mission thanking my Heavenly Father for the things that I have, that I took for granted before.  From a house that has a/c to a car to take me to a part of town.  Truly I am blessed to know that God has given me so much more than what I should have, which has helped me to become more ready to leave the things of the world and give up everything.

But Mendoza also has its fellow members and happy people too.  We have helped this family to be reactivated (Hermana Marra and her kids), so that they can start progressing again as children of God.  They came to church and we have been having fun with many of the families in our area.  We teach them, feel the spirit, and have good laughs.  I love my area; I don’t ever have worries here in the mission.  Everything will work out in its own time and we are just here to work our hardest to bring people unto Christ.  It’s been different here though, because it’s been carnival down here, but nobody seems to celebrate it.  We have had to be in by 7 every night until Tuesday this week.  We just leave a little earlier around three in the afternoon, and that heat kills me.

Best Friends:  Elder Burke and Nava

So as for the title… Elder Nava is one of my best friends! We have so much fun teaching the gospel and talking about the things of our past lives like Dragon Ball Z, Dancing, Dating, and everything else.  I found that sometimes there is not a big difference between us and we are simply brothers from different parts of the world.  He is incredibly smart and loves to make jokes.  Sadly I’ve been the victim of some.  Ja ja!  But honestly we just have so much fun doing this work.  The sad part is that these weeks are flying about as fast as ludicrous speed!  I can’t believe the week has already passed!!!  It’s so crazy!  Elder Nava and I will have the best next 5 weeks together and we will probably have more (I hope!).

Funny story of the week was not really funny.  We walked through these apartments filled with people and there are of course wild dogs around.  So we were walking and had to pass through this tunnel that was filled with I think 3 to 5 dogs- all ugly too.  But, you get used to when you have to pass by dogs that want to eat you.  But, it made me think of the days when I was scared to do fast offerings as a deacon and I was afraid to leave the car because of being bit by the neighbor’s dog.  I’ll tell you what; God definitely helps us be courageous.  I’ve found much comfort and hope in the chapters of Alma in the book of Mormon (18 to 22) where Ammon and Aaron and the sons of Mosiah taught the blood thirsty Lamanites and brought many people who wanted to kill them, to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But as always, I am happy to be a representative of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I love serving these people, and loving them unconditionally.

 

Can’t wait to hear from you all next week!!!

Elder Burke

My desk

Theatre in Mendoza