Just Desserts

Bon dia, meus amigos!

Yep, it´s your favorite missionary with yet another blog post about his awesomely amazing life here in Brazil preaching the word of God. This week was, I will admit, a little dry in terms of exciting stories. Slightly more door knocking than usual and nothing extremely nutty occurred. But, that being said, life certainly is never boring here.

The theme of this week was definitely desserts. We held an activity in the church for members and investigators on Wednesday in which everyone brought their own dessert, which we ate while talking and helping members fellowship our investigators. The craziness started on Monday when we spent our whole budget on ingredients for cookies and donuts (don´t worry, we had a stockpile of food in the house as well.) Between Monday and Wednesday we made a little more than 60 cookies and 15 donuts, giving the donut recipe to an investigator to give him a reason to go to the activity. We brought the cookies as a fun American dessert...but let´s just say that of the 60 only 40 made it to the activity, and my companion had to strong-arm me into not eating more.

But even more amazing and mind-blowing, guess who made the ENTIRE first batch of cookies ALONE? That´s right, all you unbelievers, Alex Burt actually cooked something that turned out well. Splendidly, in fact. For those of you who don´t know me well, cooking isn´t exactly my greatest talent. Or so we thought!

OK, onto more spiritual and missionary-related experiences (although this discovery of talent was rather exciting for me). As I said early on, we did a lot of knocking on doors this week, which generally doesn´t result in a whole ton of new investigators. We taught a bunch of lessons, but most were short and not as well received as many we´ve taught. Until Saturday night. We knocked on one door and a man in his mid-twenties opened the door. We hardly had to open our mouths before he excitedly ushered us in, sat us down, and began to ask us about our message and church. The way he talked was extremely understandable to me, I had nearly no trouble at all with the Portuguese, to the point where it almost felt like he was speaking English. It was very much a discussion rather than a lesson, and he explained parts of our message before we even got to them. He explained the Word of Wisdom without knowing it was a commandment, mourned the lack of authority in churches today, and talked about personal revelation. He accepted everything we said, accepted the Book of Mormon, and all was amazing. Well, except for one small detail: he actually lives in Belo Horizonte and is only here in our area during the weekends. Which means we can teach him, take him to church, but can´t baptize him. It has to be the missionaries in the area where he lives. Not that the 'who' really matters, but it makes the whole process rather more complicated. In any case, it was awesome!

Now for a bit of a spiritual thought. This one gets a bit of a backstory because it´s a little silly. It was the middle of the night, and I woke up. Well, half woke up. I was in that weird half-dream state where I knew I was lying in my bed but wasn´t thinking super rationally. And while in this state I came up with a metaphor for the gift of the Holy Ghost, as related to sleeping and beds.

I was thinking about the difference between the gift and just feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost. Because it´s possible to feel it before baptism, but sometimes I might have to explain to someone why it´s so much better to have the gift, the constant presence. I figured that the influence is like trying to sleep on the cement floor of a bus/train station, on a hot day, without a pillow or blankets, with all of the business and noise around you. Sure, you might get a few seconds of sleep and a bit of rest if you´re absolutely exhausted, and to someone who doesn´t know anything else that could be considered good enough. But to have the gift is like lying on a soft bed, with a down pillow, absolutely blissful. Again, clearly I was in my bed while thinking about this.

Quick shout out and congrats to my good friend Amy Forbush and her mission call to Las Vegas, Spanish speaking!!!! You´ll be an amazing missionary, I have absolutely no doubt!

So that´s that, my time is up. I love you all, am working hard over here, and hope all is well back in the US of A, or wherever you are right now. Stay strong, do your best, follow your hearts, and I´ll see you on the flippity-flip!

Love,

Elder Alex Burt

Daring and Fire, Dang It!

Howdy doody to all my loyal friends, family, and loved ones!

Well, this week was pretty solid. My companion and I taught a lot of lessons, encountered a lot of people, and worked hard. Sadly, we didn´t find any new, interested investigators like last week, but nonetheless we continue to progress. I also have less exciting stories this week...not that life is ever un-exciting as a missionary.

First, an update on my first convert, Delmir. He is doing extremely well. He studies the scriptures and other church materials daily at work, is actively working to help his sisters get baptized, and received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday. Also, he and his girlfriend have set hesitant plans to get married in the temple next year. Nothing official, but it´s clear he has his focus in the right places. All in all things are awesome.

Second, a few quick fun facts about the animal life here in Brazil. Because, in case you didn´t know, it´s a little different than back in the states. Some of the fun experiences I´ve had with animals recently: 

• We have a couple lizards living in our house. One was in the bathroom but we chased it out, but the other lives in our couch and refuses to come out except when we leave. They eat spiders so that´s awesome, I just don´t want it to die and leave a rotting lizard corpse somewhere in our house...so yeah. Lots of lizards here. Pretty cool.
• We got back to our house one night and sat on the front steps for a minute before going in. As my companion and I were talking, I noticed a dark shape walking along the telephone wire. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a porcupine. A full sized porcupine walking along the telephone wire like a tightrope. I have no idea how it got up there, and it had no idea how to get down. I took a picture, so I have proof!
• There´s a lot of awesome insects here and a lot of less awesome ones. The butterflies are amazing, all different colors and sizes, it´s like the butterfly exhibit back at the science center. There´s also a lot of insects that like to bite, but fortunately they´ve started to get tired of me. I´m not having nearly as much trouble as I was the first few weeks.

Third, the nature of our lessons this week. We decided to teach as much as possible, but there weren´t a lot of people willing to let us in to their houses. So we taught an immense amount of doorstep lessons- just five to ten minutes, covering all the points of the restoration, and inviting them to church and to pray about our message. It´s not the most effective way to teach, but everyone needs to hear the gospel and if this is the only way to plant a seed, so be it! That being said, there were still a good number of other, more concrete lessons. Marley, who I mentioned last week, continues to progress and is closer to getting married. We were invited into the home of a less active and offered an amazing, authentic Spanish dinner which made for an amazing end to a rather exhausting day.

Which brings me to point four: the immense amount of walking we did on Friday. We walked an hour to our lunch appointment, an hour and 45 minutes back to get to our first lesson, and then another half hour back to our house. And that doesn´t even include walking from door to door during the day. I have learned to love walking here, legitimately and truthfully, but let it be said I slept quite well that night. Oh, and we taught eight lessons that day, too.

So I will wrap up with a quick, spiritual experience. A few days ago, in the morning, I asked in my morning personal prayer to feel closer to God. It´s something I always seek, but I´d just been feeling that I needed to improve on something recently to feel his influence more. I got off my knees and began to study a conference talk given in October by President Eyring entitled "Where Is the Pavilion?" I was avidly reading and taking notes when a powerful impression hit me. Powerful enough that it was a voice heard clearly in my mind. "Alex, stop and listen." Immediately, I stopped reading and sat back in my chair. A feeling of peace and love came over me, and I knew that my Heavenly Father loves and watches out for me. I know I have a tendency to constantly do things, working and studying and thinking at every possible moment. This can be good, but it´s also important to stop and listen. I´d encourage all of you to do the same things in your lives, if you don´t already. "Life is a journey, not a race. Enjoy the moment." I promise if you do you will feel the promptings of the Spirit.

I love you all and hope that all is well. Stay strong, choose the right, make me proud, etc etc. Oh, and if anyone has Andy Merkley´s mission address please send it to me or my family, I don´t have it, but I have a letter written for him!

Much Love,

Elder Alex Burt

P.S. If the title for this post doesn´t make much sense, sorry, haha. It was just a phrase that I wrote in my journal and thought was entertaining

First Baptism!

Well, my loyal friends and readers, this week was extremely awesome. I have come to the end of my first transfer in the field...hard to believe. (A transfer is how we mark time in the field. It´s six weeks long, and at the end of a transfer the locations of missionaries are switched up.) I´m pretty sure my companion and I will stay here in Pedro Leopoldo for a little longer, but I won´t know for sure until tomorrow night. Exciting stuff.

But not nearly as exciting as Saturday, which was my first baptism here in Brazil! I mentioned last week it would happen, and fortunately all went through with relatively few bumps in the road. I have no doubt that Delmir will be a firm member of the Church--he´s excited, willing, and very strong in his decision. Let me talk a little about how this first baptism occurred.

I talked previously about how we´ve been teaching Delmir the lessons and that he was firm in his desire for baptism. Well, nothing changed in this last week of lessons. The biggest 'worry,' actually, was getting in all the lessons before the baptism. His house is reallllllly far away, and we had a hard time getting there for the last lesson. We finally did, catching the last bus to his house, teaching the lesson, and catching it coming back. We´d done this a few times already, but on this last occasion the bus drove right past us. It was actually pretty funny, pretty much everyone had an immediate big reaction. The investigators were stunned, I was waving and shouting for him to stop, and my companion leapt up with a stunned expression, and without hesitation started sprinting at an admirable speed after the bus. Fortunately, my somewhat more reasonable response got the bus to stop, and I casually jogged after my companion to get on. Delmir and his sisters thought it was the funniest thing.

Then came the day of the baptism! I´ve heard enough horror stories from missionaries about baptisms gone awry that I was a little apprehensive. But everything seemed to be going right: the font was filled, the district leader was there ready to interview, the members showed up in force, a less active friend of ours even came! The only hiccup was that Delmir didn´t show up for his interview until the minute the baptismal service was supposed to start. That hour of waiting without any word of his whereabouts was a little nerve-wracking, but as soon as he showed up he was interviewed without a problem and the baptism actually happened. A member of the branch who taught with us performed the ordinance while my companion and I acted as witnesses.

That joy of watching a child of God come up out of the water cleansed of sin -- the same joy that occurred the next day in shaking his hand after giving him the gift of the Holy Ghost -- is a feeling I want many times on my mission. Nothing compares, a fact that is made abundantly clear throughout the scriptures. I read Alma 26 today and it explains pretty well the ideal feelings of a missionary.  So, rather than write more, I´d just encourage you to go read that.

But hang on! My week had a few other exciting things occur. None quite as marvelous, but good nonetheless. Well, most of them were good. Let me begin with the less than awesome experience.

So I have no idea why it´s so early, but Daylight Savings Time occurred here in Brazil yesterday. It is one of only TWO days on the mission where you can sleep for more than eight hours during the night. And guess who forgot about it and showed up at church nearly two hours early? That´s right, Elder Burt and Elder Wilson. Sigh. The pain and agony.

Now on to bigger and better things! This week we found several new investigators who have enormous potential. Things are clearly picking up--we have at least two baptisms next Sunday and we could have one more. Plus we met two new investigators I want to mention quickly (my computer time is coming to an end).

1) Jardir. He was a reference from a member with whom we taught the first lesson. He seemed relatively accepting but has a big problem with cigarettes. That first lesson he said he´d stop, but we had to run out the door without extensive conversation because we were out a little late past our curfew. I went back the next day on splits with our district leader´s companion (meaning I was senior companion for about an hour) and we taught the second half of the restoration. He said he´d be baptized on the second of March, and has diminished his cigarretes (within one day) from two packs to only eight cigarretes! And he said he wouldn´t buy anymore. I have a lot of hope for him, but he didn´t come to church on Sunday so I´m a little worried. We´ll see how´s he´s doing later tonight.

2) Marley. Marley is the boyfriend of a member of the branch here. He´s been to church a large number of times, to the point where I thought he was a member until last week. We talked with him a couple times and he has a clear desire to be baptized. They just need to get married first, and then he´ll be baptized - without a doubt. They already have plans to visit the temple in a year and a half! Golden. I hope I´m still here in a month and a half when the marriage papers/process finish up. In our last lesson he said something really interesting. It´s clear he has a ton of respect for us as missionaries, and he said that when we pray he feels like we are speaking God´s words, not our own. Now THAT is something you want to hear from an investigator. Or anyone, actually. Very cool.

So that´s that for this week. I hope everyone is doing well back home in the states. I love you all. Stay classy, do the work, share the word, follow your heart, and I´ll see you on the flippet-flip!

Love,

Elder Alex Burt

Carnival Down Time

So right off the bat, because I know that everyone is anxiously watching my blog and are extremely worried about my well-being and questioning the lack of a usual Monday post, know that I am not dead!  It is Carnival over here in Brazil, which means that nothing was open (literally nothing, it´s kind of crazy) until today. And our mission president was kind enough to let us e-mail today. Which is especially good because I have some fun stories to share.

1) The Great Cake Debacle  Yes, great cake debacle. Let me explain. So we have three progressing investigators right now, two sisters and a brother. They are the most promising investigators I´ve had the entire mission thus far and, spoiler alert, the brother is getting baptized Saturday. So excited!!! But boy oh boy was it tough getting a hold of him. He was extremely excited for baptism a week from last Sunday, I think I mentioned it last week. But our appointments fell through three days in a row and we began to fear that we´d lost him. We needed to teach him all the lessons before baptism, which ideally would have been last week. And anytime three lessons fall through you become worried. But we found out Wednesday why he cancelled. His sisters were ashamed to have us over because they hadn´t made any cake. The irony of it all? The day they cancelled we were fasting anyway and couldn´t eat the cake. The even greater irony? We were fasting for them. But we have since taught them more, and all is right!

2) The Drunken Pen Thief  Another exciting adventure in the land of Brazil began with an extended conversation with a drunk man in a park. I have found that drunk men really like to talk, especially to missionaries who are kind enough to listen. So we talked with this guy for a while, shared a few gospel principles, and got up to catch a bus. As we left he asked to see my companion´s pen. He took it and just walked off, leaving us rather confused and penless. As I saw him turn and started to come back, I swiftly tucked my pen into my pants pocket. My companion asked for the pen back and the man swiftly turned with a curt "no" and walked away again. He came back a third time and said that we didn´t need two pens. I indicated that I did not in fact have one. He apologized profusely, gave back the pen, and we caught our bus. I was a hero.

3) A Discourse for the Ages  I had the wonderful opportunity on Sunday to give my first 15 minute talk in Portuguese. That´s right, with just one month in the field! Welcome to life as a missionary. I think it went over well. I hope they understood at least a little bit in spite of my accent. I used a whole ton of scriptures, so if nothing else that should have enlightened them!

4) I Am a Nerd  On P-day, being a little bored and feeling a severe lack of chess, I made a chess board out of paper and coins. Please don´t judge me. Also, if anyone would like to challenge me to a game of chess via mail, the letter and game would be much appreciated. I´m talking to you, Jason Carter.

So that about sums up the most entertaining parts of my week. It was a bit slower in terms of lessons taught, but those we did teach went well, especially with my favorite cake-bakers (we had cake the next time we went there. It was quite good.) I am working on talking more, and I can very much tell that the words are coming to me far more easily. And I´m understanding more every day. So although my goal of 'fluent in a month' fell through, I think my progress is coming along nicely and I feel confident in myself.

Quick spiritual thought:

Again, addressing those of you reading this who aren´t members of my church and may have questions about missionary life and the church as a whole. Today I want to talk a little about why you hear so much about this thing called baptism. We missionaries are always talking about it, and it seems like the goal of the mission is to get as many baptisms as possible.

Well, that´s more or less true.

But here´s why! The real goal of missionaries is to help people attain salvation:  Eternal happiness with your family and God after this life. Something that I know without any doubt is possible via the church and the message we have. The first step on this grand pathway to salvation is, in fact, baptism. Missionaries are in charge of introducing people to this pathway and helping them begin the journey. Also, it is vital that baptism be by one with authority-this is why we insist on baptism into our Church in particular. We claim--a claim that is factual--to have this authority of God. A line of authority directly tied to Christ and the original church that he organized.

Have questions? Please please please talk to the missionaries wherever you are!

Finally, as I conclude... Congrats to Katie Holloman on her mission call to New Zealand!!!!! That´s amazing! Although you sadly won´t be able to use your amazing French abilities. I have no doubt you'll be an amazing missionary.

Hold to the faith everyone, do your best, follow your hearts.

Much love,

Elder Alex Burt

Update from Alex

Another week, another plethora of stories and information I want to share with all of my friends and family back home! And, yet again, not nearly enough time to share it because my immediate family insists on my sending them individual stuff. But here goes:

First, a language update! This week I was getting a little frustrated with myself. See, I had this goal to be fluent within a month of entering the field and it looks like I´m not going to reach that. Or come anywhere close. Haha, it wasn´t a serious goal, and as I reach the end of the month I realize I´m much much further than I expected. Speaking in Portuguese has become a habit, even when my companion speaks to me in English I often respond in Portuguese. I always use the Portuguese words I know, even in my thoughts. My thoughts are a weird messed up hybrid of mostly English and a growing amount of Portuguese. Kind of cool, actually. Overall it´s going well, but I realize I need to speak and participate more in order to improve my speaking and accent. I´ve never been one to say a ton to people I don´t know, especially when I´m not sure if what I will say is completely correct grammatically/coherent at all. But I need to be more bold and trust that the Spirit will help me out!

Now for some quick stories:

1) At the beginning of the week we had zone conference with the Mission President and the APs. We learned a lot and spent the entire day there. Lots of good practicing, learning to be more simple, clear, and bold. Things I´ve tried to put into practice. The best part, though, was lunch. I´m drooling just thinking about it. We went to a Pizzaria, which had garlic fries, amazingly amazing pizza, and everything else a hungry missionary could possibly want. It was the best meal I´ve had in three months, without a doubt. Super delicious.

2) On to more spiritual and mission-related things! The best part of the week occurred Friday. We went on splits, meaning that I spent the day teaching with my district leader rather than my companion. That isn´t what made the day good, though. That evening we had a lesson with a young man who had attended church this last Sunday. We taught him and his two sisters, and they were extremely accepting. Like, more accepting than anyone I´ve taught yet. We taught the lesson clearly, simply, invited them to baptism and two right off the bat accepted, while the other sister said she needed a little more time. Which I very much understand, as she as yet doesn´t know much. But the man, Delmir, is extremely firm. He has already invited friends to his baptism, participates actively in church and talks with excitement about his baptism! We will spend a lot of time teaching him this week to make sure he´s ready, but in any case it made me very happy and excited to see clear results of my work.

3) One morning, during companionship study, we had the chance to chat with some Jehovah´s Witnesses who came proselyting at our door. We let them share their message with us, knowing exactly what it´s like to be in their shoes, knocking on doors. We asked if we could stop by their house to share our message with them, but they only gave the address for their church/bible study group. In any case it was an interesting reversal of roles for a few minutes.

Before I leave off I want to share a quick spiritual thought that I´ve been thinking about after reading in the Book of Mormon this week. I read Alma 5 one day (a rather intense chapter, overall), which includes the prophet Alma calling a city to repentance. One verse in particular stands out, I believe it was the topic of a recent General Conference address. In verse 26, Alma asks the people if they have had a change of heart and the desire to sing the song of redeeming love, can they feel so now? Can ye feel so now? I direct this at anyone who is having a rough time right now, or struggling with testimony, or simply needs a little more joy in life. Know that this gospel, this marvelous news about Christ, is true. I know it, you have felt it, and I know you can feel it again. Or, if needs be, can feel it for the first time. Pray. Truly try to follow Christ. And you´ll feel that joy. I promise.

Much love, follow your hearts, do the good work, and make me proud!

Elder Burt

Matozinhos Area

Well, I´ve been here nearly three weeks and I think I´m finally starting to get the hang of things. I don´t have the perpetual appearance of a startled rabbit anymore. Or so I hope.

Matozinhos

The big stories of this week all relate to a certain town called Matozinhos. As I think I´ve mentioned already, our area covers three cities: Pedro Leopoldo (where we live and the branch is located), Matozinhos, and Confins. We received a couple references for Matozinhas, which I think I also mentioned. Well, success continues to appear there as people haven´t heard much about the church and are very open to learning more. The only down side is a rather large sum of money that is now going to daily bus rides there and back...so my meals will be a bit more scanty, I think. Or maybe it just means less snacks. However, everyone there loves us, feeds us, insists on our return...we are a welcome presence, and it makes me grateful to be a missionary.

Some fun stories! First, a lesson that occurred in Vera Cruz, another area. We were knocking on doors. In fact, it was the first door we tried that day, and a woman came out, opened her gate, and told us to enter before we even explained who we were, saying she had been expecting us. We walked in and she had an open Bible and said she´d been praying for answers right when we arrived. It seemed like a miracle! We were ready to teach but then she just kept talking...and talking...and talking. I don´t think we said a single word until we´d been there twenty minutes. We tried, I promise, but she just kept interrupting! We were there for TWO HOURS and didn´t even get to fully explain the Book of Mormon. She kept saying she didn´t need it, she already had the truth, ignoring everything we said including attempts to leave. Overall it was rather entertaining and very frustrating. However, her husband was more receptive, and we will try to teach him more on a later day.

Next was a pair of lessons that occurred one right after another and were exact polar opposites. We entered the first home and encountered just the wife, an older woman, of a man who had been extremely excited the last time we visited (different family from my last story.) This woman ignored everything we said and insisted she didn´t have any desire to read the Book of Mormon, that reading was too much work, and that she was very comfortable with what she had. Not a whole lot we can do at that point but testify. The next lesson we taught was to a reference of a reference. We had no idea what would happen when we walked in. Turns out she had already received a visit from the missionaries twelve years ago, had a Book of Mormon, read it and believed in it, and was extremely open and understanding of everything we said. It was an awesome lesson, teaching someone who is so ready to hear our message. Brought me up considerably after our last lesson. (So you know, we returned to that home later with the husband home and he was just as excited about the Book of Mormon and seems like he could continue progressing.)

I want to share a quick thought. I don´t know who all reads this, but I guess it´s quite likely there are some people who aren´t religious, or perhaps just not Mormon. I want to explain a term that I´ve used frequently: The Spirit. I wish I had more time to explain, but essentially The Spirit is the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead. We believe it is a distinct personage from God, and we receive the gift of its presence and guidance after baptism. It has various roles, including teaching, comforting, and testifying. For this reason it´s really important to me on my mission, as I need a lot of help, comfort, and guidance from God. It is via the Spirit that we receive these things.

So there you go! I´ve got to close now, I wish I could write more. I have so many stories, experiences, and lessons that are helping me become a better person. It´s not easy, but as Elder Holland would say, salvation was never easy! I´m here to help others and to serve Christ. And I know that I´m doing the right thing.

Much love,

Elder Alex Burt

First Full Week

Hello and sorry for the wait!

I am sending this letter from Pedro Leopoldo, my mission area. It is a small town in between Belo Horizonte and Sete Lagoas. A small town, but we have a large area of proselyting. Lots and lots of walking and bus riding. Exhausting, but rewarding. I´ll try to use the small time I have to share a few stories and thoughts. Sorry if they´re a little scattered!

First, I´ll talk a little about how lessons work here and how I participate. We spend much of our time clapping at doors and talking to people in the street, because when I arrived we had fairly few progressing investigators. We have taught the first lesson like fifty times these last couple weeks. That´s hardly even an exaggeration. People are very willing to let us in and hear a message, but far fewer care to hear more. But we have found a few who are interested and will continue to visit. During the lesson itself, I usually teach about a third. My Portuguese is limited in terms of small talk and extended teaching, but I am able to teach all the parts of the Restoration lesson and improve every day. My companion and I switch off roles, he´ll talk about God, then I´ll teach prophets, then Christ, apostasy, restoration, etc. Back and forth. Sometimes my companion has to clarify things I say, but overall I am taking a bigger role than I thought I would in the first week.

Next, language! It is a lot more difficult out here in the field. My companion and I try to always speak in Portuguese, which helps. I say try, but honestly it´s true, at least 90% of conversation is in the mission language. Makes me think a lot more in Portuguese. The toughest thing is comprehension.  I can understand everything my comp says, but with Brazilians, listening is far more difficult. They speak quickly, place words in a different order, and obviously there are phrases I don´t comprehend. But every day is better and I understand more, get more accustomed to the way they talk. It´s especially tough because here in Minas Gereis they have a particular way of speaking called 'Minheiro' in which they make all their words shorter. Very tough for a person learning the language.

Now for some stories. The first occured almost a week ago. My companion decided it would be a good idea to take a 'shortcut' to another neigborhood in the city via a rickety ladder up a wall and down the railroad tracks for a mile. I was doubting how good of an idea it was until, miracle of miracles, we found a few houses directly next to the railroad tracks. In one of them we found a new investigator. Crazy world.

Second, and sadly I think this is all I have time for, we went to another city in our area, Matozinhas, to teach a couple contacts there who had visited the church in another city. We found Dream Street there, with many new investigators, contacts, and receptive people. One particular family let us in, had us teach with the whole extended family gathered around, then fed us and chatted for a while. They told us we are welcome back anytime to teach and rest. Oh the blessings of being a servant of the Lord! And I hope that family is blessed as well for their hospitality. I love the people here. So welcoming and kind.

All right, to wrap up. Congrats to Tasha Munk on her marriage! That´s fantastic, and I wish her my best. Congrats also to Devin Munk and his mission call! I´m so excited that he´ll be joining me in the work of the Lord, even if it´s in a different place.

Also, scripture of the week: Alma 5:45-46. Read it and know that I feel exactly the same way, and know I´m in the right place doing my best to serve the Lord!

Love you all, always do good, follow your hearts, and I´ll see you on the flippity-flip!

Elder Alex Burt