Spanish Land

Hello all!

Well this week was pretty... challenging.

I was pretty sick for a lot of it. We also lost a little bit of our teaching pool. However, there were some pretty decent highlights. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Martinez and Elder Ashton to Spanish land. I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what was going on. It was pretty hilarious. Elder Martinez is an amazing missionary. He has been a member for a year and a half. He is more converted then most members. he is awesome. Elder Ashton is from Highland. We had tons of fun.

My district council was all over the place. It was pretty fun! We talked about the importance of prophets. Elder Lowry kept interrupting and saying funny stuff during it. I was laughing pretty hard.

We had another lesson with Captain Jack. We talked about guns and stuff for an unreasonable amount of time. However we managed to talk about family history. How we got in the subject was pretty funny. We were talking about underground apocalypse bunkers. I mentioned the giant bunker the church has up Little Cottonwood canyon. We keep all of our family history up there. He loved it! He asked why we care so much, and I explained baptisms for the dead. The spirit was super strong, and he teared up. Hopefully he will start going to church and read the Book of Mormon.

Sunday was sad. We went to church, however during church, I almost feel over and passed out. We went home afterwards, and unfortunately did not get on opportunity to work. I hated it and it was a shame. Hopefully we will be able to make up for it this week. 

Have a wonderful week everyone and don't forget to go to the temple!

Elder Burt

Sacrament Mtg Talk 2.17.2019

Good morning Brothers and Sisters. I am incredibly delighted to speak to you today about a topic that is extremely close to my heart. The power of the Book of Mormon in conversation. We talk a lot in the restored church about the Book of Mormon. We talk about how it was translated by a Modern Prophet of God. We discuss how it is an amazing record of the people on this side of the world, and how they too worshiped God and lived his same laws and commandments.

However, there is one fact above all that completely puts the rest to shame. The Book of Mormon itself states its purpose.

3 Nephi 9:15
15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name

There is no doubt in my mind, or the mind of anyone who has read this book, that if nothing else, putting everything else aside, this Book testifies of our Lord, and our Savior Jesus Christ. It tells us if his suffering, it goes into painful detail about his Atonement.

Mosiah 3:7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people

The Book of Mormon also exhorts us and asks us to repent. It explains that repentance is not a backup plan for The Father's children. It is not just a thing we do in case we sin. But it is the plan. We will sin and there is no getting around it. Our father knows this, and through Jesus Christ we can become clean. 


3 Nephi 9:21 Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin

The Book of Mormon, according to the Prophet Joseph Smith "is the most correct of any Book on earth". This is an incredibly bold claim. In a modern context it is downright dangerous to say this in view of a near infinite amount of knowledge and information. Especially dangerous is when you say this in the presence of someone who upholds the Bible as a flawless monolith of truth. In the talk "The role of the Book of Mormon in conversation" by Elder Shayne M Bown, He tells us about his MTC teachers experience in Chile

As a young missionary going to Chile, I learned a life-changing lesson about the conversion power of the Book of Mormon. Mr. Gonzalez served in a respected position in his church for many years. He had extensive religious training, including a degree in theology. He was quite proud of his biblical expertise. It was obvious to us that he was a religious scholar.
He was well aware of the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they went about their work in his home city of Lima, Peru. He always wanted to meet with them so that he could school them in the Bible.
One day, almost as a gift from heaven, so he thought, two missionaries stopped him in the street and asked if they could come to his home and share the scriptures with him. This was his dream come true! His prayers had been answered. Finally, he could set these misguided young boys straight. He told them that he would be delighted to have them come to his house and discuss the scriptures.
He could hardly wait for his appointment. He was ready to use the Bible to disprove their beliefs. He was confident that the Bible would clearly and articulately point out the error of their ways. The appointed night came, and the missionaries knocked on the door. He was giddy. His moment had finally arrived.
He opened the door and invited the missionaries into his home. One of the missionaries handed him a blue book and bore a sincere testimony that he knew the book contained the word of God. The second missionary added his powerful testimony of the book, testifying that it had been translated by a modern prophet of God named Joseph Smith and that it taught of Christ. The missionaries excused themselves and left his home.
Mr. Gonzalez was so disappointed. But he opened the book, and he started to leaf through its pages. He read the first page. He read page after page after page and didn’t stop until late into the afternoon of the next day. He read the whole book and knew that it was true. He knew what he had to do. He called the missionaries, received the lessons, and gave up the life he had known to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That good man was my MTC teacher in Provo, Utah. Brother Gonzalez’s conversion story and the power of the Book of Mormon made a great impression on me.


I love that excerpt from that conference talk. Elder Shayne M Brown had an amazing MTC teacher. It gives me a lot of hope. The power of the Book of Mormon is very powerful brothers and sisters. I remember I was instructing a young men's activity here in the woods creek ward a few months ago. We did a tracting activity with them, to give the young men a taste of what they would run into as a missionary. I gave them one objective: get the Book of Mormon in their hands. Me and my companion stood behind the doors of the class rooms and we paired them up into companionship. Me and my companion gave them a very rough time. We wanted to make it is real as possible. I must say me and my companion were very impressed, as they managed to get a Book of Mormon in the door most times.

At the very end of the activity, I sat the young men around a table. I asked them a very simple and seemingly obvious question: why would we want everyone to have a Book of Mormon?

I heard some good answers, me and Elder Harris were pretty impressed. I then raised another question. Why don't we hand out Bibles? As members of the church, we absolutely love and uphold the Bible as the word of God. We even dedicate this whole year to studying the New Testament. So why then, when missionarys knock on doors, we have a Book of Mormon instead of a Bible?

The Answer is simple and crucial. The Book of Mormon, is physical proof of the Restoration. A professor at BYU named Hugh Nibley had this to say about The Book of Mormon, "The fact that the Book of Mormon exists proves that someone wrote it". There is a long list of possibilities for who actually wrote it. The world will tell you that Joseph Smith wrote it. That he forged all 531 pages in a span of just over 2 months. That somehow Joseph Smith was able to forge an ancient document, that contains an extremely diverse amount of content, everything from Hebrew style prophecy, to Military strategy that rivals some of the greatest strategists of the 20th century, let alone the 19th, to some of the most beautiful writings of Christ ever written. The world will tell you that somehow Joseph Smith was able to accidentally create ancient writing patterns in the Book of Mormon, which are extremely complex, and only known to the ancients until they were discovered in the late 19th century, well after the Book of Mormon was published. Frankly brothers and sisters I cannot comprehend the Book of Mormon not being true. The only way it makes sense, is if the Book of Mormon was written by who the Book of Mormon says it was written by. By the ancient prophet Mormon himself, by his son Moroni, and by Nephi. It follows that they also quoted all of the ancient Nephite Prophets, from the Great King Benjamin, to the martyr Abinidi, to the amazing missionarys Alma and Amulek.

However no amount of worldly information can prove the Book of Mormon right or wrong. Sure we have a lot of physical, temporal and logical proof. It is easy to fall for the worldly ways of doing things and worldly evidence. However, there is really only one way to know for sure the Book of Mormon is what it says it is. And we learn that at the end of the Book. Before I quote these verses I want to give you some context. Imagine you are the last surviving person of your entire civilization. The only other people within the next 200 square miles want you dead. You had the privilege of watching your friends fall by the sword to the tools of the adversary. Your own father was even killed. Now for the rest of your life you are in the wilderness alone. This is Moroni's situation. And some of his last few words say this.

Moroni 10:4-6 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth Jesus Christ, but acknowledgeth that He is.

This is the tool Brothers and Sisters. This is how we are expected to find our way back to Father. Through our prayer. Through our pleading and wrestling with God. 

Elders and Sisters this is my testimony *Bear testimony *

Calling Home on P-Day!

Hello everyone!

Funny story, zone conference was this last Friday, and it was pretty awesome. We were all sitting in the pews, and President got up to speak.

"Well, I found this out just 20 minutes ago, but on P day you can now call your parents and talk to them every P day."

Holy cow we thought he was lying! That is pretty darn awesome. I was happy this morning to talk to my family. As far as I can tell I can only really call my parents, so if you want to talk with me, set something up with my Mom!

Zone conference was honestly pretty funny. We got totally roasted as a mission for having not taken care of our cars. I like to think I wasn't part of the problem but I'm pretty sure I was somehow.

After getting roasted we had a good instruction and amazing lunch. I got to see Hermana Dorius again! She was with me at the airport with Hermana Chartier when we first came out. It was super fun to see her again!

We had a great lesson this week with our investigator Mark. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He loved it. At the very end I asked, if he found these things to be true, if he would be baptized by someone holding the priesthood. He said he would have to. That's a great start for us! However he still struggles with the concept of faith, and won't pray because he said it feels wrong. Pray that he will be able to pray.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting! I absolutely love giving talks. I try to stay passionate to keep the audience attention. I will email my talk to my parents.

Continue to pray for us! Thanks for being awesome!

Elder Burt

Cabin Fever

Hello all!

This last week was not my favorite. We got absolutely hammered with snow. All throughout the week, the snow would melt, and then harden again making it impossible to drive safely. The Mission President said no driving if there is ice or snow on the roads. I don't imagine he is very happy about this either. Due to the fact we live out in the sticks, this made getting missionary work done neigh impossible. 

But we did it anyway! Thursday was the only day the roads even looked kinda safe, and I was ABSOLUTELY SICK of our little apartment, so me and Elder Lowry snuck out. We very slowy and carefully drove to a small apartment complex a few miles away. We had met a man a few weeks earlier who's name was Greg. He said he would love to meet with us some other time, but he was busy when we first talked to him. So, we went over Thursday and got a return appointment for Saturday! We managed to get a ride from our ward friend Brother Lowe (who is super rad) and we were able to make it to his lesson. We found out he has been through very hard stuff, and doesn't believe God has a plan for him. We taught him the Restoration, gave him a Book of Mormon and said he would read it. Next time we will discuss the Plan of Salvation. 

I am very excited to continue meeting with him. Pray that I don't get cabin fever to bad, cause for most of this week it looks like we are still stuck in our apartment. On the plus side, I have been studying the Old Testament like crazy! 

Love you all! GO TO THE TEMPLE! 

Elder Burt

District Transfers!

Hello!

Well what an interesting week. We had transfers this week. My Districts last transfer was huge. I'll list it out for my sake so I can remember.

Sky Valley Spanish 

Elder King

Elder Martinez

Elder Ashton 

Clearview Elders

Elder Evans

Elder Skirvan 

Clearview Elders

Elder Harris

Elder Anderson

Monroe Maltby Sisters

Sister Tharp 

Sister Northrup

Snohomish Zone leaders

Elder Thompson 

Elder Jones 

Instructing District council was so much fun! I am going to miss that District. My District now is

Snohomish Zone Leaders

Elder Jones 

Elder Jolly

Clearview 

Elder Bjork 

Elder Harris

Sky Valley Spanish 

Elder Martinez 

Elder Ashton 

Super fun! I served around Elder Bjork a few transfers ago and love him to death, so happy is in my District.

We had a lot of lessons this week, including another one with captain Jack. He is very clearly from that Biker Military background that so many are from. Always has a beer in his hand, and owns many guns. Also a few Harleys, and a cannon. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he seems interested to continue learning.

Well, the Super Bowl last night was awesome! Not that I would know. Instead of tracting, we walked the streets of Monroe looking for homeless people to minister to. We had a few good conversations, but the streets were pretty empty!

I finished reading Saints last night. What a sad tale. I highly recommend everyone read it. It is amazing that the church suffered so much. But the Lord will not be stopped. The rock cut out without hands will grow and fill the earth, until the great Lord of all says it is. 

I have a testimony of this work. I love all of you. Stay safe!

Elder Burt