Hit the Ground Running

Hi my favorite people!

What a week. Remember when I said last week was nuts? Yeah, I just hadn't lived through this week yet. Holy moly, if anyone ever says life as a secretary is laid back, I might just...disagree strongly with them.  In fact, the work is continuing as I write this. President just came in to talk to me about the houses, and I have to make a few calls right now.  But let's focus on the important thing, which is this e-mail and letting you know why this week was crazy and why it's awesome to be a missionary.

1) Rain- So I heard the rainy season started back up over there in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Well, know that you're not alone! This week has been super rainy here in Belo Horizonte as well--thunderstorms, and all that fun stuff. I love it! The smell of rain and wet city streets. Walking with just a light rainfall, enough to keep cool but not get soaked. It felt like home, honestly.  I was happy on Sunday as we got to work/walk outside a bit.

Admittedly, it also created some problems Sunday morning: two investigators who were excited to come to church were either sick or put off by the rain. They're excited for this upcoming Sunday though, and I'm sure they'll love conference.

Moral of the story: rain is awesome, but I wish it would just hold off until 9:30am, at least. I guess I need to pray harder.

2) Limits- And it's a good thing I got to enjoy the Sunday weather because the rest of the week saw very little field work. And a whole lot of office work.

Every day I was receiving dozens of calls, making dozens of calls, sending off contracts, talking with the church judicial department, dealing with money shortages, making payments, and all the while praying, working, and stressing about the one week deadline to rent at least seven new houses.

Let it be enough to say I was stressed. But through it all I also learned a whole lot. If there's something I know about myself, it's that I like to push my own limits. It's when I can actually see what I'm capable of. Running on all cylinders, I guess. Having to keep track of all these different things, my mind running through all of it and trying to get everything to move along and solve any problems that pop up as they pop up...it's exhilarating. And exhausting.

Honestly, that's something about life in all of its aspects, even spiritually. You have to keep pushing yourself if you want to grow. It's not always going to be comfortable, and it's certainly not going to be easy, but results, stronger testimonies, faith, knowledge, progression--they only come with work.  And when you're doing the kind of work that pushes you right until the brink and then you come out at the other end successful, it feels so much better for the effort.

3) Results- And so I was happy when this week ended with good results. Four houses rented by yesterday. Two today. And two ready by Monday. Talk to me at the end of next week and we'll see if everything worked out how I want it to, but I'm happy, at least.

I have to go now. Conference is about to start. We have a prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson. He is inspired by the Lord. I love the opportunity to hear him, I love this church, and I know it's Christ's church on the earth today. The words I'll hear this weekend are modern scriptures.  So that's why I'm pretty excited right now.

See you all on the flippety-flip!

Much Love,

Elder Burt