Elder Taylor James Burke: Do What You Say

November 23, 2015

Buen Dia!

Elder Burke, Celene, Angelica, Elder Montero, Joaquin

So anyways, this last Monday after writing you guys we went to say goodbye to Celene, the 9 year old super member missionary that we had. She went to Buenos Aires and will be there for the summer until March. We are gonna miss her because she was always helping us with teaching her friends and family. She’s a huge role model for us and she will definitely be a great missionary someday when she is older. I cooked brownies and Angelica, the Aunt of Celene, cooked little pizzas. We taught the Plan of salvation using little drawings since there were more little kids. It was fun.

Elders Burke, Pace, Mostoller, Gowans
Back together again (MTC district)

We went to Resistencia for our Multi Zone Conference with Pres. Franco, Hermana Franco, and The Assistants to the Pres. It was really great and as we were talking about faith and setting goals, I shared an experience of how when Elder Nava and I made the goal to add three priesthood holders to the branch, and we had the baptism of Juan Romero and Pedro Pimienta. But he and I left without a third. But, I returned to find out that one of the members that we were working to reactivate (Jorge Gomez) was reactivated and just the past week he was sealed for time and all eternity to his wife Dalma! They’re my best friends here and we have so much fun spending time with one another and helping them with whatever they need. Also they enjoy taking a lot of pictures so I can imagine that if you look on Facebook I’ll probably be there in their posts! ja ja. But anyways President Franco said that by my return to Corrientes it could be that I will be there for a little bit more time! ja ja Everyone was laughing and I was pretty content with staying here, there is a lot of work to do. But I got to see Elder Pace, Elder Mostoller, and Elder Gowans from my MTC district! It was like a family reunion! Also I got to see my two favorite Peruanas together before one of them left, Hermana Paima and Lanfranco. Hermana Lanfranco will be leaving. It’s pretty nuts now that I’m losing even more friends. I’m one of the oldest Elders now here in the mission.

Elder Burke with Hermanas Lanfranco and Paima

The only problem is finding these people at their house in the area. It gets hard here in the mission when you and your companion are they only ones who are remembering the appointments we make. We call them too and confirm with them that we will be passing by, but they are always forgetting.

When you say that you will do something, do it. Be a man/woman of your word. God wants us to be on one side and stay there, not be line crossers and oath breakers. He has us make covenants so that we may be like him. It’s very true that what it says in D&C 58:30-33

30 Who am I that made man, saith the Lord, that will hold him guiltless that obeys not my commandments?

31 Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled?

32 I command and men obey not; I revoke and they receive not the blessing.

33 Then they say in their hearts: This is not the work of the Lord, for his promises are not fulfilled. But wo unto such, for their reward lurketh beneath, and not from above.

God gives us blessings when we obey and He always will bless us, so why doubt? We constantly think that if we don’t receive blessing its God’s fault and not ours. But God will always fulfill His part if we will do our part. So the purpose of a Covenant is that we may be men/women of our word and that we do what is right even if it is hard and stick to it. It’s not easy, but the blessings are worth it. So as you can see, when we are talking about making commitments, it gets hard because we were super excited for this Sunday for investigators to come but no one came. It gets hard sometimes, but you worry about the people as well.

Matias is almost there. The only thing now is that he can recognize his answer and make the decision to be baptized. We had a really good lesson where we helped him understand more about Joseph Smith through the Bible and the Great Apostasy that was prophesied and then fulfilled, making the need for the restoration. He seems so very confused by other church doctrine but by following the spirit and bearing testimony we were able to help him see the light. Now he has to continue trying. We keep trying to convince him, but something that I have learned from my dad is that "if you force it, you’ll break it". So I’m learning to be more patient.

For our ultimate P-day as a zone we had tacos and played volleyball and threw the pig skin around. That was a lot of fun! Yes! It was sooo much fun and President Zarur who is our president here in Mendoza bought the meat which was super expensive. He’s awesome! And so now we are all sweaty and tired from running with a whole lot of jalapeños in our stomachs.

We have been sharing with a ton of people the movie MEET THE MORMONS since it is now on YouTube. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIgXg0hK42U

Love you all and love to hear from those who wrote. Keep writing me and sending lots of pictures!!!

Elder Burke