Knowledge vs Wisdom

I hope you read the Strength of Youth Pamphlet .  I’ve been teaching it a lot, to the youth.  It’s super important!  I didn’t really understand it all before I left on my mission.  But now I can see how amazing it is.  I hope more youth will read it and really understand how important its teachings are. The more you try to be the person you know you could be, the farther you will progress.  

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we always “know” the answers—you know that the Sabbath day is the day of rest. You know what the Strength of Youth pamphlet says, but we don’t always live it.  Most of the time, we live under our potential.  We think that we’re doing good, but we don’t have it figured out yet.  The difference between knowledge and wisdom, is that wisdom has an application.  Knowledge is just the stuff you know.  But, Wisdom is when you actually live it. It’s a really big difference. You have to act!

The Strength of Youth pamphlet has all the things you should act, do, as you live it, you will have a happy life.  When you don’t live it, you’ll have problems and you’ll know that something is not right.  It’s scripture just like the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  You have to follow it. You'll never regret it. 

Jon Mariaga is one of the members in the playa. 

He's super cool and served his mission in Bogota.

This week was pretty good.  We are working with Omar Morleno, one of the youth we found.  He’s a cousin of a recent convert.  We met him a long time ago, but then we ran into him again.  Now we are teaching his whole family!  He’s progressing really fast.  He’s getting baptized in a couple of weeks. 

In a lesson he broke down and told us that in December he stopped smoking, stopped drugs, and then found us.  He said that in the time we have been with him, he has really changed a lot.  His family is all Christian.  We can all see the difference in his countenance. He is reading a ton in the Book of Mormon, he loves all of the things in the church.  He’s been coming to all of the youth activities and making a lot of friends.  He’s now just working to get ready for his baptism.  We are super excited for him!

Yesterday we had a good experience with Luis Barassa.  He’s a great help to us.  He’s in our ward at church and comes from a really big family—20 or 30 people.  He spends a lot of time working with us, and comes with us to visit people.  He wants to get ready to go on a mission.  As we were walking down the street one day, he pointed to a house and said, “I think the missionaries used to be teaching someone here.”  So I looked at my companion and him and thought, you’re both pretty new, still in training, so why don’t you two talk to someone here!  They were both too scared, so I walked up and began talking to someone at the house.  We didn’t know if he was a member, or if he had just met missionaries, but he said, “I’m actually a member of your church.  I would love it if you can all come back tomorrow.”  We’re headed over there today.  We’re really excited to meet him.

 

Kent R. and Marilyn M. Searle from Burley Idaho

We have interviews this week with the Mission President.  We actually meet with President Searle, then the assistants, then with President’s wife, Sister Searle.  With the assistants, we do a practice and learn a lesson from them.  We are excited for that, it’s going to be awesome!

Missionaries in the district playing futbol

We played a great soccer game this week with the other missionaries.  I’m feeling much better physically.  My last companions didn’t like to get up to exercise.  I had to drag them out of bed everyday, because they didn’t want to leave the house.  But my companion right now is pretty new, so I just tell him we’re getting up to exercise and he does it.  He doesn’t love it, but he’ll go running with me, do some pushups, and we’re feeling really good!  I can tell the difference in how I feel when we meet with the other Elders and play a good game of soccer.  

I hope you are all doing great.  Have a great Easter!

Thank you for all your letters and support. 

I love you all,

Elder Burk

Tallest building in Barranquila