Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Sorry for not writing last time.

June 6, 2016

So as you all may have noticed... I didn’t write last time.  I am terribly sorry for that and hope that I can at least give you all a good update as to what has happened.  So I’ll work from the most recent to the past week and try to do good on writing. 

This week we had four investigators in church!  Yup it was just awesome!  I had to go walking on a fast Sunday, sick with the flu or something, and then walk back from church.  I was so completely weak, but at the same time I knew that if I was just faithful to my fast and just kept putting one leg in front of the other, the Lord would help me get there and back again.  And it happened.  I had to cook some soup and sleep for studies to go back out to see people in the afternoon. Go Siesta! ja ja.

The four people who came were obviously Espifanio and Fransica.  We are just waiting for some papers to get them married, but they keep going to church like champions.  The second is Dora Gonzolaz who is a Jehovah’s Witness who is super awesome.  She literally says to us that all she wants to do it learn from God and be forever humble so that way she can enter his Kingdom!  So when she came to church the members already knew her and when we went to go look for her for in the Doctrine Principles class, the members told us that "Oh no elders, you can’t steal her from us, she’s staying in this class".  We were more than happy to let the members fulfill their responsibilities.  And then there was Lisandro who we walked with.  We had to wake him up and go a walking for a long time to the church but he seemed to like the church. 

Last week we were teaching Dora and she was enjoying the amount of scriptures that we have from the Book of Mormon that help make things so clear.

We read 2 Nephi 29:7-8
 7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

 8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

And we were only planning on reading about 7 but then she reads ahead and then tells us that that makes complete sense for her and she wants to keep reading the Book of Mormon.  It just makes you have a lot of hope.  So when we asked her about being baptized she told us that she had an experience when she was catholic that when she went to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and she felt like her entire life was a lie and she wasted so much time in a church just to find it wrong, and then she said that she is starting to find the same thing and feeling here listening to us.  She wants to wait until she has all the facts right.  The Holy Ghost helped us understand more as to how to explain to her that what she is doing will not make her feel like her life was a waste.  I explained it like this and I hope it makes sense in the time that I have to write:

Our lives are compared to that of a student who is learning the art of pottery.  All who join obviously wish to make a work of art.  Therefore we learn to whomever will have some experience, those who are a little ahead of us, or those who are seeming to have success and are close to ending their project.  We often forget that we have instructions and a teacher and we just solely rely on others or ourselves for help.  So we create different versions of the pot as it spins and tends to change its form until we have to make corrections from the advice given from those that are near.  Then suddenly as we look at the instructions and then follow them, the pile of clay then becomes more of a pot that is sculpted for perfection, and we continually confide in the teacher to help us make corrections.  We are constantly surrounded by thousands of opinions in the world from philosophies to religions, opinions to ideas, but we often forget that when we were sent here to this earth, we were given a plan to follow that will sculpt us into being the perfect person we were designed to be.  We must always confide in the scriptures and Heavenly Father first before anyone else in our lives, for people change but He will never.  If we have to change course it is better than staying in the wrong, because it’s not where we have been that counts, but where we are now that will affect our eternal salvation. So don’t be afraid to change for the better!

With Lorena we are still working with her to quit smoking so that way she can feel the spirit.  It’s a real big problem for her and all we can do is help her to go down in smoking until she doesn’t want one more cigarette. But she’s still progressing. 

It’s getting close to the end but the way I see it, even the last moments of your life really show what you are made of.  If you give up before it’s over than what was all that hard work before for?  It is looking like we won’t get that last baptism before I go, but I’m more focused on preparing those people to be baptized for the next missionaries that will teach them.  What we do in the last moments of a fight, of a game, of a struggle, or a goal really will show you who you are and what you stand for.  Always stay strong till the end and keep the faith! 

Love you all and wish the best for all! 


Elder Burke

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