An old building that just sits there in the middle of a field of grass next to a broken railroad track.
Me, Elder Rivera, Silvia Gonzalez, Soña, Alex (in front). We usually have lunch with this sister every Wednesday. My first lunch with them, the son, Alex, was convinced that I was Spider-Man.
This Tuesday we had a meeting in Paso de Los Libres until three and when it was over we had to hurry to the bus terminal to get on the bus back to Mercedes at three thirty. However, when we got back to the terminal we found out that the last bus left at two, so we had to spend the day with our zone leaders in Paso de Los Libres. Once the day had ended, the four of us, Elder Rivera, Nish, Medrano, and I, had to wait until almost midnight to get the next bus. So to pass the time we started doing challenges. Things like trying to eat a spoonful of dry cinnamon or a bunch of the sour stuff on Sour Patch Kids. We got them all on video, but I won't be able to send them; the internet is just too slow here.
The other night, we were teaching a nine year old boy, Jonathan, who hasn't been baptized, but has parents who are members. So what we want to do with them is reactivate the parents and then have the dad baptize his son if he can get ready fast enough. Teaching them we noticed something in the corner of the room on a shelf. He had a picture of the Holy Death, or Saint Death, (the Grim Reaper) and a candle burning next to it. So we asked him if he worshiped the Saint Death and he started telling us how the Holy Death is a just god that gives to everyone no matter who you are. So we starting teaching him about obedience and blessings and how Christ is the only One who has the ability to bring us true blessings and how all those who serve the Devil will be abandoned in their hour of need and then speedily thrust down to hell (Alma 30:60). So things aren't looking too good for Jonathan's progress since he depends so much on his parents still. They weren't in church yesterday, but we'll be checking up on him to make sure that he gets rid of that from his house.
There were a lot of people that messed with that in Texas and we had to give a few people some blessings and bless a house because of things like that. No one should ever look anything up about it or even wonder about. Just know that it's not of Christ and will only cause problems.
There is a man that we're teaching named Francisco Soto and he is about sixty-five years old. Right now, we're helping him quit smoking and he's progressing pretty well with that. Last week he was smoking twenty a day and now he is down to just a few daily. We taught him about prayer and fasting and how it can help to overcome his addiction and before we could even explain everything to him he was already asking if he could start fasting and or if he had to wait for something special.
The other night when we went to visit him it was really interesting because he was there in his front room talking with two boys of age fourteen, Allen, and nine, Rolando. It was an interesting group of friends and an interesting lesson. Rolando was kind of a fireball, but not in a bad way. Francisco was pretty eager for them to listen and understand, but mostly it was Allen who took anything in. They didn't really know anything about the scriptures or God, so we just taught them who Christ is and who God is and Francisco helped us out a bit too.
Elder Rivera and I have been reading a book called, "In Defense of the Truth." It's not very long and Elder Rivera already finished it. It's a true account of these two missionaries in the United States who were confronted by multiple leaders from multiple churches. What happened is the Elders and all these different heads of other churches got together in a session of court, lead by a judge, and had a scriptural debate about the Bible. Obviously it was all the leaders from the other churches against the Elders in an effort to prove the Church false. Obviously it they couldn't do it and the Elders were able to show that it was every other church present that was in error and that everything the Bible teaches is supported by the book of Mormon and is upheld in the Church of Jesus Christ.
Right after we are done here, we are going to a member's house to help them out with a few things and this family is just one example of how blessed we are in the United States. First, we're going to do some repairs to the chairs in their house, because as of now they don't have any that work. So Sister Anyelen bought some nails so that we could put everything back together. We're also going to help her out by buying some of her food. Right now, she has been making a desert that is similar to an empanada and has been going door to door taking orders and then making people's orders for the next day. Yesterday after church, we went to visit them with the branch president because they are also asking for financial aid from the Church because their two boys, Diego, 7, and Javier, 5, don't have shoe's that fit them. They have to either wear their dad's shoes or Javier has a pair that are already fallen apart. Despite of all their problems, they are still doing the best they can with what they've been given instead of complaining along the way. Count your many blessing, name them one by one; and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
os amo,
Elder Burt
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