Well, another week come and gone. It's been good, it's been busy, I've been all over the map. Literally.
1) Travelling- Literally, I spent nearly twenty hours on the bus this week. Last Sunday I went to Belo Horizonte to renew my visa (5 hours). On Monday we came back (5 hours). On Tuesday I went to João Monlevade on a division (2.5 hours). On Wednesday I came back (2.5 hours). On Thursday I went to Governador Valadares on a division (2 hours). On Friday I came back (2 hours.) It was nuts. I was rather tired by the end of the week, but it was good to get around and help the elders out in the cities further away.
2) Mission Prep- While we were here in our own area, we managed to teach 90% of our lessons with members. The members here, as I mentioned last week, are very willing to help. And this week we focused on members who are preparing for missions but having some second thoughts at the moment. We spent entire days visiting other people with them, and getting them pumped for mission service. We taught some excellent lessons, and it was interesting having a day in which we had to focus not only on helping the investigator feel the spirit, but also the member who was accompanying us. Our continued practice of singing hymns seemed to help, and these very timid members began to speak up in lessons without our having to ask questions.
3) Mission Donkey Prophet- This one takes some explaining. So on Sunday a miracle happened--a less active member brought three grandchildren to church who want to learn about the gospel. The youngest, a thirteen-year-old named Artur, was already asking about where he could be baptized before church was over. That evening we went to teach them.
The lesson went well, the place was full of members and investigators. The less active adding occasional funny, non-doctrinal commentaries, the two other members actively promoting the church, the two twin girls not saying anything, and Artur talking a ton. It was hilarious. We were teaching about prophets and their purpose, and asked if they knew of any prophets. One girl said Noah, the other Moses, and Artur said: the donkey. I don't know why that was the first Bible story to come to his head, but we cleared up that the talking donkey was not what we meant when we talked about prophets.
Later we were talking about the church, and they asked if there were apostles today. I said yes. They said, "But they're unknown?" And I said, "No, you can know them." And one of the girls, a little wide-eyed and speaking like she'd had an epiphany, said: "Are you the apostles?" We cleared that up as well.
As we finished, Artur continued to express his desire to be baptized by us, the prophets. We explained, again, that we were neither prophets nor apostles, but had been given authority by God through them to baptize. All accepted to be baptized on June 7th. Good stuff.
This week has been great. I'm tired at the end of it, but that just means I worked hard, gave it my all, and received blessings because of it. I'm excited for the future. I love this work so much. I love you all. Keep the faith.
Much Love,
Elder Burt
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