Elder Taylor James Burke: Baptisms and Reunions

August 24, 2015

Ok to explain really fast of what has happened recently this last week.

We had the chance to talk to go to the famous Tucan who does a really awesome job with leather. He has been selling his product for over 27 years to the Elders and Sisters who are in our mission. He is very skilled but sadly he never has gone to the church- Ever. But he has a huge collection of animal skins from Alligator to Beaver to Iguana! And even more! He’s pretty awesome. Thinking about taking advantage of this time and buying a couple of things for home! We tried talking to him but sadly he doesn’t really budge.

Baptism of Santiago!

The Hermanas here in our branch had a baptism for their investigator Santiago. He asked me to baptize him, so I did. He’s super awesome and used to be a drunk, but changed his entire life around and got baptized! We all sang “Count your many blessings” for his baptismal service. It all went good seeing as the baptismal font is just a tarp with metal outlining. We had to use stairs to get into it. Pretty sketchy because I thought I was going to fall in! But everything went well.

Multi-zone Conference in Formosa

Thursday we got to go to Formosa for our multi-zone conference and I got to see Elder Allen, Elder Goycochea, and even Elder Nava!!! I was super happy to see my favorite Mexican there again. We obviously had fun catching up on what the other one was doing. Elder Allen gave his testimony for the end of the conference, along with another elder because they were going home in a week! I can’t believe it! Elder Allen, my trainer, is going to be gone and I only have 10 months left! It’s absolutely crazy how fast the time has flown. I still remember being here the first couple of weeks and not knowing how to do anything and now I’m training someone who is in the same situation I was. Man was it crazy! Afterwards we had to do divisions with the zone leaders because now that I am a district leader, I have the responsibilities of interviewing other investigators to see if they are ready to be baptized. So I went to Ibarreta to see the investigator of Elder Abernathy and Elder Dangelo. While I was there with Elder Abernathy, it was definitely one of the most greatest spiritual days ever.

Elder Abernathy in "The Colony"

We went to this place called The Colony. The Colony is a place where live these Indian tribes but they are more advanced than the whole loin cloths and spears type Indian thing. They have normal Argentine houses, but live way out in nature. It was crazy because we left with a member who lives there to visit a family, and the cousin of the member calls us over and told us that his cousin is leaving to kill himself. We look to where he was pointing and saw this gangster-looking Indian walking away down the road with a knife and computer wire. He turned around and saw us, came to us, and told us that his life was sad and that he wants to change. He was obviously drunk and switching from sad to crazy drug addict (like I’m used to in the hospital). So, I told him he was gonna go to bed and sleep. We walked him back to his house, Elder Abernathy and I with the member, and put him back in his house. He didn’t want to kill himself after that. I don’t know if he is gonna be ok, but we will have to see what happens afterwards.

When we were teaching out there, it was so quiet, no distractions, no motos, no loud stereos, and it was so spiritual because it was basically the Sacred Grove of Argentina. All the lessons we had there were very good. Also I got to hold an alligator and let an owl groom my hair! ja ja

I don’t have a lot of time to write but I love all of you!

cuiedense (take care)! Chao chao!

Elder Burke