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| Huge Futbol game--with the Stake President, the missionaries, and the members |
This week we got
a call from Elder Miller, he’s a good friend, working in the mission office right
now as one of the assistants to the President. He called us one night to tell us the story
of what happened to him last week. He went with President Searle up to a farm
for a p-day activity, and they went hiking with a local. The local said, “Be careful! There’s a
beehive right there.” He told them that
they were killer bees. Elder Hansen
decided to be like, “Ahh” joking and screaming.
Then the whole swarm came after them.
They destroyed them. It put two of the Elders into the hospital. They
had to get medicine to treat the venom.
Bees are apparently really dangerous here. Especially killer bees. Don’t play around beehives.
We had A LOT of
rain on Thursday. Here in Colombia, they
missed the whole drainage concept.
Everything here in Valledupar is made out of cement. Cement houses, cement roads, cement sidewalks,
cement everything. And there is no
drainage underground at all. There’s a
sewer system underground that kind of works.
But when it rains, it comes down so hard, so strong, and so fast, that
it just floods everywhere. So all the
streets turn into canals. It was raining
super hard.
We were in a
lesson, then left, and we were drenched.
It’s constant rain like we had in Indiana, but there is no drain holes,
no grass or dirt to soak it in, just concrete. So it has to just drain out of the city. We taught the lesson, then we left, then we
got totally soaked, and went stomping through the rain. It was so deep the water was halfway up our
shins. It was like walking in a big
swamp. We get to this part where 3 roads
come together and dump all of the water into one. We had to cross it to go back and check our
house.
The last time it
rained this hard it clogged our back patio, and came into our house. So we hurried home to get it all situated so
we could go back out and work. When we finished, we went back out, determined
to have one more visit before the night was over. By this time it was 7:30 pm. We left and we had to cross back over this
river again. It’s deep now, up to our
knees. And it’s a really strong current,
like walking through the Boise river. So
we cross it and get to the other side.
We had two visits set up, both were very reliable visits too, that we
knew we could depend on, so we wanted to get to them.
We finally make
it to their house, and the first one is not there. We go down the street to the next one, and
they’re not there. So we’re sitting there in the rain wondering
what to do next. Lots of things happen
when it rains here--People rob each other, they get in crashes, people get
hurt, people die. All kind of bad things
happen. So we think, ok, both of these
visits that we were super sure would be there, were not home. We know God must want us to go somewhere. So
we said a prayer, and we looked up, and not a single name came to our
minds. We couldn’t think of anybody.
Absolutely no revelation.
The only thing we
both felt was that we should go that way.
So we went down the road, we took a right, we took a left, then we went
straight, and we see a car down the road that has its blinkers on. We said, let’s go. So we start walking towards it, and a lady on
the side of the road says, “Hi Elders.” So we say, “Hello,” and we went to
shake her hand. She introduces herself
as Sister Molina. She said that she is
less active. We followed her back to her
house, we met her husband and her two kids. They moved from Rioacha sp? It’s a really tiny town out in the Rahewa sp?
A really dangerous part.
We learned that
they both used to be really active. Her
husband used to be the Elder’s Quorum President, she is super awesome and ready
to be active. We learned that they had actually joined the church here, in our
ward. But then they moved, and had a lot
of problems, then got divorced. When
they were separated, the husband got drunk and got hit by a car. His leg is now super messed up. It was HUGE, ginormous. After the accident, they got back together,
and then decided to move back here. They
had just moved back to the area two days ago.
She was praying to be able to get back in touch with the church, and
help her family. So that day in all the
rain, we were led right to her. She said
she was praying that she would find a way back to the church, then she looked
up and there were the Elders, right in front of her in the rain. She told us
that is took God just 2 days and her prayer was answered. So that was awesome.
They all showed
up to church on Sunday—and we didn’t even have to remind them to come. They are excited and ready to come back. They have some repentance ahead of them, but
they are ready to change and return to church.
It’s awesome to have experiences like this and realize that God is
mindful of all his children, and when they turn to him, he will lead them back
home. He knows who’s ready, and who is ready to help.
By the time we
left their house, it was really late, and we had to cross this river again. By
the time we got there it was now waist deep—it was really fast, more like
crossing the Payette River. So we go up
stream to find a way over. There are
people wake boarding in the river. But
it is super dangerous. There is all
kinds of stuff floating around in the river.
If a random tire comes floating down, it will take you out, and you’re
gone. And if you keep going down
farther, you fall into the canal, and you’re done.
We finally get
to a place we can cross, it’s waist deep.
Then we found a guy on the other side, who looked at us and said, “I
need help.” We look down and he has a
big scar/open wound on his foot and his foot is broken. He couldn’t walk. So we had to turn around and help him cross
the river so he could get to his house.
We start getting back to the house, and we see all these families
waiting to cross the river. All these
high school age football street rats are moving their way to the side and say
to us, “We’re here to help people.” So one by one they start helping people
cross the river. Elder Selman and I were
trying to help people, but it was getting late—it was 9:20, and we’re supposed
to be in the house by 9:30 pm. And here
come all these 16-17 yr old young men who take care of everyone. They looked at us and said, “We’ve got it.” I looked at them and thought of the pioneer
story where the young men helped all the people across the freezing river. It was a similar situation, only the
Colombian version. It was really cool.
Today, for
p-day, we played a big futbal game with our Stake President, all the
missionaries from our zone, and lots of members. We had 2 full teams of 11, and almost a third
team of subs rotating through the court.
We had rented a big huge field and had a super cool game.
I hope
everything is going great with the new ward.
I have learned a lot about ward leadership on the mission. Pretty much, everyone should just do whatever
the leaders ask you to do. God will
bless you for being obedient.
I love you
familia! I hope everyone is doing great.
Have a great
week,
Elder Burk
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* Hey Mom, thanks
a lot for you letter. It’s so sad to
hear about the passing of Brother Ipsen.
I’m so sorry for his family. I
definitely know the Lord cares about them, and that he is where he is supposed
to be right now. He was a great
patriarch, and a great man.
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*That’s super sad
for Aaron!! Poor Aaron. He’s probably never going to float a river
again. I felt so bad the first time we
took him down Indian Creek, when we broke his canoe. But Braden taking him this year, and getting
stung by a bunch of bees…yikes! That’s not good. Somebody needs to take him down a good river trip
so he can have a positive experience and gain his confidence back. Hopefully he’s alright.
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