In food news: McChubble vs Salchipap

We had our first baptism yesterday!  Her name is Karen Patricia.

She just got married to Yovani on Saturday, so she could be baptized.  We walked by their house on Saturday night, to drop off the baptismal clothes, and their house was rockin!  Karen and Yovani were dressed in all white while the rest of the people were in flip flops and t-shirts (or no shirts) sitting in lawn chairs out on the dirt road eating cake.  They had the biggest, baddest, loudest speakers in the whole world.  Seriously.  There were 10 feet high with a 1000 watt amp.  My shirt was vibrating.  These people have their priorities right!  We scheduled the baptism for 7:30 Sunday morning so we would be able to start by 8:00 (Latino Time)...

Elder Cavero and I went to the church at 6:00 am to fill up the font only to find out that the water pump at the church was broken.  Super cool.  So we got buckets and called more missionaries to help, and ran to members houses to fill the font.  We eventually started using water from the truck wash place next door.  By 8:00 we had the water up to the second step.  Which was enough for a baptism.  Haha.  She had to lay down flat, but she got it the first time!  Her husband, Yovani, was excommunicated years ago, but loves the church and is one of the most active elders.  He is working to be rebaptized.  It's super cool to see the gospel's effect on this family.  I hope they make it to the temple.  If he can get rebaptized, I have no doubt that they will.

On Saturday, we had our first leadership training for the ward leaders.  We taught them about home teaching, and how to have a visit.  We did practices where we were the investigators and they had to find the need and teach a lesson to help.  It was cool.  They caught on really fast.  We are going to keep having this class every Saturday in August to help strengthen the ward.  Our goal is to get them fired up to help the less actives so we can work together better.  The ward is super awesome!  I really love the youth!

In food news: Last week I took a bus and a motocar to plaza del sol to spend 10,000 pesos on a tiny bottle of nutella.  Today my companion and I found a bigger one for 25,000 pesos.  #yolo

I also found the McChubble of Colombia (for those of you who are unfamiliar with this deliciousness, just ask Braden, I'm sure he will gladly take you to McDonalds for a demonstration.)  But here in Colombia they have the Salchipap!

It's this big plate of fries, topped with cheese, sausage, ham, pork, other mystery meats, funnel crisps, mayo, catsup, some mystery green sauce, and probably cocaine.  So yea!  pretty much the best thing ever!  There's a picture below.  Oh, and a picture of my companion, Elder Cavero, after his 3rd one this week. Ha.

Read lesson one of Preach My Gospel.  There is a part that talks about how the gospel blesses families.  There are a lot of great scriptures in the bible that talk about how we are all children of God, and God wants us to have families.  This is what makes people really happy.  Idk, there's a specific verse I'm thinking of that a man needs a family to live up to his true potential.  I'll see if I can find it this week.  Focus on loving the friends you have.  Don't leave school with feelings of regret or anger.  Try to leave every friendship positive, or at least neutral.  If you don't have closure, it might haunt you a little bit.  Mom always said, Be kind.  Forgive.

The hour to write home goes fast.  Everything goes fast.  I love it!  Honestly, I don't feel like it's been that hard.  I mean it's work at times, but I've never been overwhelmed.  I've got the Spanish.  It came really fast.  I got a little sick, but I just took one of every drug that Mom gave me and kept working, and I was fine.

Maybe it's because I have a really good companion and my parents prepped me well, but yea, I'll probably have hard days later.

I love you.  Thanks for everything,

Elder Burk