Elder Taylor James Burke: Come at me Dog!!

January 12, 2015 (week 20 in Argentina)

Service Project moving bricks at the Cantero Family
(Elder Allred, Elder Burke, Elder Ware and Elder Swingle)

Hola!

Awesome things are happening here in Argentina! We are now ready to have the baptism of Maria and Natividad Meza!!! Not to mention we have another awesome kid named Silvestre who will be baptized as well! His mom and dad have been going to church together for such a long time but they can’t be baptized because they were married before and have to get a divorce before they can get married. They can’t find their spouses, so it has definitely been hard for them. But they are working hard on staying true to the church even though they haven’t been baptized yet. It’s absolutely crazy what Elder Swingle and I have been doing lately and even crazier with the mission rules now!

So to bring you up to speed, the mission has numbers to keep track of; how we are working in our areas and if we are having success. This helps new and old missionaries view their progress and help with planning. The mission here in Argentina isn’t using that anymore. They just want to know how many came to church and if we baptized anyone that week. It’s definitely different because we now have a lot of freedom in how we run things. They have put a lot of trust in us as missionaries now! But Elder Swingle and I have been kicking butt anyway, so we will definitely continue to do so. Ja ja

Dinner with the Meza and Mercado Families
(Lto R- Natividad and Maria Meza and the Mercado family)

We had two family home evenings with the Meza family and Natividad Meza cooked us the best tasting empanadas in all of Argentina and the pizza (in Argentina standards) was the best as well! She was laughing as she watched Elder Swingle and I drool and enjoy the food with much “gusto” as we are helping them grow in the gospel and how it can help them in day to day progress. I’m so excited for their baptism!!!

There are times when as a missionary you’ll be walking and people just run up to you asking for help or wanting to know who you are. So gladly we love to tell people who we represent and why we walk in 45 degree Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) weather every day. We found a guy that the Hermanas (Sisters) were teaching in their area (they moved away and we are in charge of it now), who can’t read at all. He was so happy as we were teaching him how to read letters and how it sounds and testing his knowledge. He gets super excited when we tell him how good he is doing,

Now for the header, we were walking and out of nowhere these dogs were as usual barking at us, because they suck, but like five out of nowhere started charging at us and you would all think that this would be scary, but we are used to it. So we just turned and faced them, and waited. Dogs will bark at you all the time here and try to bite you, but I’ve learned that they won’t do anything if you stare them in the face and make them feel like a small chiwawa. So yeah, that’s just another day in Argentina.

Overall we are excited for Natividad and Maria to get baptized!!! So we are preparing them for that every day this week. Can’t wait to send pictures!!!

Love all of you and if you can, go read 2 Nephi 33:10, whether you’re a member or not, it is one of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon.

Love you all! Chow!!

Elder Burk