Elder Taylor James Burke: Feliz Año Nuevo Chamigos!!!

January 3, 2015

Feliz Año Nuevo Chamigos y espero lo mejor en este año para todo de ustedes. Hoy dia estamos muy agradacido que pudimos encontrar un ciber que funcciona para escribir a todo de ustedes.

So for New Year’s we all managed to have two days off because well... you know... everyone here drinks what they call the blood of Christ, or wine, to celebrate the New Year and also with a ton of cidra and beer. So being in the most dangerous part of the mission and for the rest of the mission we ended up passing the time in the pension bien tranquilo (very relaxed).

New Year's Eve

31st of December: We went to pull out money for the next month and spent an hour in line to pull money out of the ATM. And while we were there we could see rain clouds a coming! So after taking out our money we were walking to the church to eat with our awesome Paraguay member named Simon who cooked us empeñadas and sopa paraguaya, and we thought that in any minute it will rain. And what happened?... it poured like the flooding in the time of Noah. We booked it to the chapel and managed to get inside before being completely soaked! We watched as the water rose and rose. The street became a river instantly and then after the rain passed it went down in 30 minutes. But it was a ton of water. And that’s normal here. There are a lot of floods happening here in South America. You can say that we are well hydrated and have enough water to last us a life time. We called the other Elders: Gonzolaz and Diaz to come to our pension and pass New Year’s with us. We played monopoly and then made 60 empeñadas for the 4 of us. Drank nonalcoholic cider and then watched the huge fireworks and lanterns fly in the sky. We tried to send another floating lantern with our goals for 2016 but basically it didn’t fly. We took it as a sign that we wouldn’t be really completing our goals! jaja.

1st of January: We woke up, I did some exercises and we had a normal Argentine missionary breakfast which consists of things from last night or cereal. Me I am now invested in eating only protein shakes so I can get more active and healthy. After that we watched movies on our tiny little DVD player (Basically church approved movies or in other words “Meet the Mormons” and all of the videos from D&C), ate french fries and then of course we enjoyed the best thing ever... a shoot out! Yes as I was in the bathroom I heard loud screeching brakes from a truck and then cars passing by quick and then gun fire (three bullets from a small rifle) and then more cars passing by then stopping. I was thinking maybe those were fireworks but maybe it was gun fire too. So I walked to our ironing room where it’s nothing but windows on the far part of the room that are covered with see- through curtains. We could see out but no one can see in and what do I find... The police force putting down the assailant right in front of our window and putting him down to the ground. I was quiet and I moved back to the bedroom and told the other elders what happened. And well they wanted to see as well so we spent a good 20 minutes being quiet watching the cops survey the scene and arrest the drunk shooter and then take him away to the police department. HAPPY NEW YEARS! Don’t worry we are all fine and it’s something that doesn’t surprise us. But it was sure funny to see! We are going to be moving anyway so don’t worry mom, we will be fine.

After that we had an awesome time of having a member bring one of the guys that is renting in the house of his grandfather, to church! His name is Matias! He is sooooo freaking awesome! It was fast and testimony meeting so we were all sitting and I felt the impression to share my testimony on service. It was really good and I feel like what some people needed to hear. And after the first meeting Matias pulled me aside and said that he really liked my testimony and wanted to join the church and be a missionary. Let me tell you that that is a miracle. To find one person who wants to be baptized or consider being baptized is one thing, to find someone who is already saying "Ya I want to be baptized" and "I want to serve a mission" is amazing. So we are going to be teaching a lot with him to get him ready to be baptized. Throughout all of Sunday school he was asking questions and even explaining doctrine that was true. He’s gonna be baptized!

After all of the crazy moments you have in the mission you can just see the miracle of the Lord still going in your life and in the lives around you. I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that you can make the best of it! Don’t spend it doing something that won’t give back, put your time and effort into the things that matter most!

Con Cariño,

Elder Burke