Elder Taylor James Burke: Light

February 1, 2016

Studying the scriptures by flashlight-
we lost power 3 times this week

As always I would have it be known that I love being a missionary. Never will I ever say to anyone that I hated being a missionary. If I say it was easy that would be a lie, but I will say it has, it is, and will continue to be one of the greatest decisions that I have made in my life. It’s something that I treasure and I hope that all that are ready and able can serve a full time mission to bring others unto Christ.

It’s been a fun week with a lot of success! We managed to get 3 people to come to church and it was a lot of work but we managed to get them excited and ready to see how it is to be in the church and feel the spirit fill their lives. I know that they will receive many blessings for this week and their life by listening to the words and testimonies that were shared this Saturday.

The first investigator who came was Alipio. He’s an old investigator and Elder Flick and Stout were actually teaching him when I was here the first time in Mendoza Al Sur. He’s quite lonely but the more that he is coming to know the members of the church he is starting to feel more like he is part of our family. We are working with him to be baptized on the 20th of Feb., but we will have to see how that goes on his preparation. The second investigator is Sebastian. He is a hardworking and a very humble family man with his wife and two kids. He works in construction and is building his house for his family. He is a work horse and you can see the worry in his eyes for his family. When we were teaching him throughout the week, he made the determination to go to the church early on and kept with his gut feeling to go and see the church. It’s hard to teach families who are humble because they sometimes lack good education in reading and writing skills, so having them read is a hard thing to do, but we encourage them to read little by little so that they can grow in the spirit of the Lord. The third is Angela. She is just great. She studies and understands a lot. She is excited to learn and by her desires she understands more and more every day.

Elder Sanchez and Elder Burke

When we woke up Sunday morning we went on divisions with members of the ward to go look for our investigators and wake them up or walk with them. My companion, Elder Sanchez, went with Hermana Rachel and my first convert here in Mendoza, Juan Romero. They went all the way to Rio Parana by foot to look for Angela and take her to church by bus. I went with Jorge Gomez and Leo Gomez to go wake up Alipio and Sebastian. My companion told me that they got lost for a bit but thanks to Juan they found their way. Hermana Rachel was worried about how Angela was going to get home, so she showed faith by taking what was left of the coins I managed to give her and they both went by bus after church to get her back home. I was truly amazed by the love and genuine worry she had for Angela who was a complete stranger. God bless you Rachel Gomez.

Sebastian and Alipio came by themselves. It was great because they could obtain more light and more spirituality as they could participate in the sacrament. Light is what brings us to know what is true, right? Light helps us see. So it’s no wonder that the Prince of Peace, the Son of God called himself the "Light of the world". We had a very interesting appointment with a catholic missionary couple that we could teach. And as we taught, many things came to my mind that helped me see more and more how Christ is light. Sadly the couple said to us, that it is impossible to know all the things that are true, we can never know the truth of all things, so why should we ever question if where we are is the right place? I’m very concerned to find that some people think that God is a God that likes to play hide and seek. That’s completely foolish to think. God wants us to know all things; He desires that all of His children inherit His kingdom. It is there that He will pass over the reins of His kingdom to His children, or in other words we will know all things like He does.

Doctrine and Covenants 50:24
24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a progressing thing, and so we must work hard to obtain more light; more knowledge. If we feel like God doesn’t want us to learn then what would be the point to our existence? Our Heavenly Father loves us and shows it to us by giving us his words line upon line.

Isaiah 28:13
13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little;

2 Nephi 28:30
30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more;

So study and pray. Do it continually so that as Paul said we may not be "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;" Ephesians 4:14

Believe that you will receive the answers to everything. Be patient. Just because you haven’t found the answer to your doubts or questions doesn’t mean that the answer doesn’t exist, you just haven’t found it yet.

After all of the great times that we could have here, we managed to go and eat in a restaurant with our small zone of six and the zone leaders of Armania. We had a great time. Also we had to give a class on faith and conversion for the fifth Sunday and that was stressful because we had to teach everyone and the district presidency was all there. But we did manage to teach everyone by doing a little teaching trick I managed to pick up in the mission. Everyone pays attention if you just call on them to give an opinion or an answer. I would call it Russian roulette teaching, no one knows who I will call on, so everyone, even the teenagers were very attentive, and everyone was participating not out of fear, but because they really were reading, understanding, and following what the spirit guided them to say. It was amazing and the first presidency of the district congratulated us for our class.

Hope all is well and that you can all be safe where ever you are!

Elder Burke