October 31, 2016
Well family, this week was Transfers! I’m here with my new companion, Elder Munoz,
he’s from Ecuador. He’s really
funny. I was transferred to Zona Hipodromo. It’s in the same zone as Soledad,
where I started in the mission. They
have changed up the zone, so it’s different than when I was here. There are now 28 missionaries in this zone,
and I am still a zone leader. Our area
is new.
This week we went to work and meet people. We are starting from scratch. This area is pretty much dead. We have to find people to teach. There are no past people to teach. So we are opening up this area and we’re
going to work really hard.
We started this week by going to talk to the Bishop. He seems like a really cool guy, But he is
still working on his own faith. We asked
him about the ward, and he said that the people study, but they don’t come to
church, because they have work. And so
he thinks the ward is really hard. We’re
going to have to really teach this ward about faith, sacrifice and the
principle of “Yes you can!” So we’re
going to work on that. We followed the
advice of our mission president to get to know our leaders first. So we met our ward mission leader. He is really great, younger, super
excited. His name is Kevin, he’s a
convert of 5 years. After meeting the
Bishop and his whole family, we told him why we’re here, to help his ward grow,
to find and baptize priesthood holders, and to find families that need the
gospel. We told him that the Mission
President made a challenge for the whole mission that wards should have a
baptism every week. Then we let him know that was actually his responsibility,
and that we were here to help. So we let
him know we would do anything he needs for his investigators, and his less
actives, recent converts, and shared with him all of our great ideas. Then when we were through, we asked him to
give us a blessing so we could work well in his area and baptize every single
week. It was a very spiritual evening in
his home. We both feel like we gained
his confidence right from the start.
His wife gave us a referral with a sister that lives close
to our apartment. She told us that she
has been wanting to learn about the gospel for a long time, but he missionaries that were here before us,
never contacted her. We went to see her
the next day, and visited her, and she came to church the first week. Her name is Mikel, and she has a 10 year old
and son. Now we have 2
investigators!
I am very against just baptizing kids. As a zone leader, when the missionaries call
me, asking for permission to baptize a primary aged child without their
parents, I always tell them no. I pull
out Moroni 8 and read it with them over the phone, and remind them that
children are not in need of baptism, we’re looking for whole families. Then I tell them to stop visiting this
little child, and go teach a whole family.
I’m pretty strict about that. I
think it’s so important. We love
children, but we know that the best way for them to be raised is in the church,
together, with their parents and families, so that is our focus.
This area looks like it has been ignored for too long. There have been some interesting missionaries
in this area for a while, so we are going to do all we can to establish great relationships
with the members. I’m really happy to be
working with Elder Munoz, he’s pretty awesome.
In fact, he probably wants to say hi. Just a min, I’ll get him (He’s giggling, this is a recording…) “Hi familia Burk. I am from Ecuador. I play futol.”
Oh, one more thing.
Today we went and did a big huge zone errand. We had to go get a bunch of signatures from
the missionaries. We chose to do that
today, on our pday, because we want to work tomorrow. When we got done, we ended at Plaza del
Sol. It’s a big commercial place. While we were walking out, I ran into
JoAnna. She was one of the first
families that we baptized from my first area.
I was so happy to see her!! We
shook her hand, and she said that their whole family is still active and going
strong in the church. It made me SO
happy! I was so excited to see
that. I can say that all the people I
have taught on my mission are still active.
It makes me super excited. She
was happy to see me too. I was a little
nervous she was going to try to give me a hug, but luckily, I stuck my hand out
soon enough that we just shook hands.
Because a hug would have been really weird. Thankfully we didn’t have that problem.
Love you all!
Elder Burk
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| Painting by Melvin Lance of Dairo and his family. |
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| Elder Campos, Harold, and Elder Burk |
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| Miguel finally got married!!!!! |
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Mom—to answer all of your questions:
My new companion is really sweet. He was in the office for awhile, but when the
new President came, and made a lot of changes, he is now here working with me.
We have 28 Elders in our zone. It’s not
the exact same area that I have served in before, but it is the same Zone.
I’m also attending a new building. It’s actually a really old chapel. In this zone, I know a few of the
missionaries, but most of them are new.
I feel pretty good being their leader.
Maybe I should be nervous, because a lot of them know who I am, but I
don’t know who they are. So we’re
working on that!
I am now only 45 minutes from the Mission Office. Maybe like Boise is to Meridian. The Office is in Boise, and I’m in the
Meridian/Kuna side of town.
The ward is a lot smaller, less mature, not very
powerful…yet!
My companion knew me, and knew that this area didn’t have
anything good going, so before I arrived, he erased the whiteboard, threw away
bad records, and pretty much cleaned everything out. When I walked in, he handed me a marker, and
is pretty much letting me lead out, starting from scratch. We’ve made a lot of great changes, and we
think it will all work out really well.
Pdays—are going to be pretty disappointing here. There are no cool monuments, statues, or cool
places to go, it’s actually pretty ugly.
Just a bunch of houses close together.
We are going to play a lot of futbol, and get really creative on how to
have fun. I’ll need some new ideas.
Change is hard.
Valledupar was really great, and I love so many of the people there, but
7 ½ months is a long time, and it was definitely time for a change. So there is plenty of work for us here.
Answers for Abi headed to Peru: Mission tips
- Sisters—shoes in hot climates, just wear what’s comfortable, and water proof. Just get something normal.
- Shoulder bags—sister use big ones. Get one that fit your scriptures, something that buckles around your waist is very awesome, and helpful. Bags get heavy when you walk everyday.
- Get everything thin, small, compact, waterproof.
- Yes—bring laminated pictures. You’ll just want to shove them in your scriptures.
- Get Scripture covers. You will get rained on.
- Get the small new scriptures quad in Spanish
- Sometimes poor people are blind, so big print helps, but you have to carry it everyday.
- Buy an mp3 player that can hold lots of music.
- Get medicine for normal stuff. You’ll be glad you have it.
- Ibuprofen, acem, allergy, diarreah. I’m glad I brought all the medicine I brought.
- Bed bugs—I use the mattress zip cover and I have not had any problems. Definitely get one. They’ll give you a mosquito net.
- Bring deodorant from home, something with anti-persperant. Just cheap stuff here.
- Bring your favorite shampoo.
- You can get toothpaste here
- Bring your favorite hair products.
- I’m glad I brought a lot of razors, just simple bic razors here.
- You don’t need a water bottle. I just use disposable ones.
- Your bag is really important.
- Read Preach My Gospel—bring a small one, and a small hymnbook, get a cover for them too.
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