We worked in the area of some other elders on Tuesday. The area is called El Dorado, but is anything but golden. My trainer had talked about that area as being a place of many hills, and sure enough it is. The entire area is either on an upward or downward slope. I got super tired by that place, it was tough.
Our week was pretty tough as well. We are trying a lot to find new people, but it is getting really hard for some reason. To make matters worse it rained on Sunday. Hardly any members went, much less investigators.
Presidente and Sister Tavares came to our branch. The first thing Sister said to me was "Elder Burt, just 15 more days!" It was totally unexpected coming from her, usually they are so anti talk about home/going home. But it's cool, it doesn't really faze me.
Our week was pretty tough as well. We are trying a lot to find new people, but it is getting really hard for some reason. To make matters worse it rained on Sunday. Hardly any members went, much less investigators.
Presidente and Sister Tavares came to our branch. The first thing Sister said to me was "Elder Burt, just 15 more days!" It was totally unexpected coming from her, usually they are so anti talk about home/going home. But it's cool, it doesn't really faze me.
At church, a woman who has been a member for about 15 years prayed to Jesus. I didn't really know what to do, so I just didn't say amen. That's about all I want to say about that.
There is this really cool family here of members, inactive members, and non-members. The inactives don't want to return and the non members don't want in. But the active woman's mom died this week and we went to visit a couple times. She has 12 living brothers and sisters, and four that already died. I was impressed by the way she dealed with the situation, really she is chill about it.
She can't read, but understands the plan of salvation well enough to not get super shaked up by things. It is so good to know that death is not a huge deal. It's something I didn't really give a lot of thought to before seeing the other side--people that have no idea where their dead relatives and friends are or what they are doing.
I think about what it must be like to be an atheist. Having zero hope or zero desire for something after death seems like it would make life such a dead end road. I think most atheists and agnostics have hope for an afterlife, even though they deny or try to ignore the light of Christ that they have.
The importance of the restoration of the gospel is something that probably none of us that were born in the church really comprehend fully. I think one of the big reasons we go on missions is to recognize how big the difference is between the truth and part-truth. Even the members who don't really live the gospel are generally so much more at peace with the idea of death. The sadness is natural, but the despair some people go through is unnecessary. I'm glad that I was able to see that contrast here, it has really changed my perspective on things.
She can't read, but understands the plan of salvation well enough to not get super shaked up by things. It is so good to know that death is not a huge deal. It's something I didn't really give a lot of thought to before seeing the other side--people that have no idea where their dead relatives and friends are or what they are doing.
I think about what it must be like to be an atheist. Having zero hope or zero desire for something after death seems like it would make life such a dead end road. I think most atheists and agnostics have hope for an afterlife, even though they deny or try to ignore the light of Christ that they have.
The importance of the restoration of the gospel is something that probably none of us that were born in the church really comprehend fully. I think one of the big reasons we go on missions is to recognize how big the difference is between the truth and part-truth. Even the members who don't really live the gospel are generally so much more at peace with the idea of death. The sadness is natural, but the despair some people go through is unnecessary. I'm glad that I was able to see that contrast here, it has really changed my perspective on things.
Thanks, love you all, have a great week!!!
Joey
ELDER J. P. BURT
CLASSIC 435 STYLE
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