My First Public Talk

Sunday, April 13, 2014

We were up early to drive about an hour to Las Piedras to do orientations

for Obelisco 1^st Ward and 2^nd Ward. This building was huge!  The have a soccer

goal posts set up inside their gym!  They have an upstairs, main floor and basement.

Sunday school started at 10 am.  I got brave and did our introductions in Spanish.

Tears always flow when I talk about my family and how difficult it is to be away from them.  But I want them to know that it is a sacrifice for all of us and hopefully they will

be willing to sacrifice some of their time for this Open Chapel as well. Here’s my Spanish:

Buenas tardes hermanos. Somos Elder y Hermana Burnett.  Somos de Utah. Tenemos tres hijos y tres hijas y también tres indios apache que vivir con nuestra familia. Tenemos treinta y un nietos.

Presidente Monson quiere que su sirven para dos años. Es muy difícil dejar a mi familia pero tenemos amor para ustedes y Jesucristo. Gracias por sus amor.

Mike’s part is always wonderful. His enthusiasm for teaching them always shines forth. We attended their Sacrament meeting and I played their electronic keyboard. This one actually had the organ sounds that worked.  I think they enjoyed hearing the organ.  We were done at 12:30 and the other ward didn’t start until 2 pm and our part didn’t start until 3 pm.  We took a little drive around town and ate lunch in the van.  The 2^nd presentation went well too except Mike was losing his voice from so much talking.  We might have him record his voice for the 12 minute powerpoint presentation that explains the capilla abierta event.  We also attended their Sacrament meeting. We were on our way home by 5 pm.  After a long weekend, I had no clue what to fix for dinner.  Elder Pugmire called us and asked us if we wanted to come to Elder Hatch’s farewell dinner!

Absolutely!  Dilemma solved.  Elder Hatch stayed 6 weeks extra so that he could help President Cook transition.  Elder Hatch served under 5 mission presidents.  There have been a lot of changes in this mission I guess.  What a great assistant to the president! 

We arrived home around 10 pm absolutely tired!  Busy, busy weekend!

Elder Hatch

Our House Keys

Capilla Abierta Barrio de Aeroparque

Saturday, April 12, 2014

We did our first Capilla Abierta for the Aeroparque Ward.  It has turned cold and this morning it was still raining. Some of the ward members thought it might be best to cancel and move it to a different day.  We told them we couldn’t reschedule until a year from now.  By afternoon the rain had stopped, but the wind was still blowing and it was cold.  I had only brought a sweater and was wishing I had my coat. 

The Bishop of this ward is the best worker and dedicated does not even do him justice. I think he was solely responsible for every person that walked into the building.  He stood out front and waved people down or talked to them as they were walking by.  He did this for 3 hours!  It was cold out there.  We finally made him come in and join the baptism that was scheduled on top of the Open Chapel. 

The ward did a great job in presenting their part too.  The missionaries told us that all the active members were there.  This made for a great baptism since everyone was there, including some of the people that came for the Open Chapel.  I think we were probably the only Capilla Abierta that had a live baptism! 

We arrived in Aeroparque around noon.  The event started at 4 pm and was supposed to end at 8 pm but it was dark and cold by 7 pm so we ended early. 

Mike drove the sisters to their place which took about an hour.  When he got back, we packed up our things and crammed 4 Elders into the van with us and took them to their apartment.  We arrived home around 9:30 pm.  

Video of the event: Capilla Abierta Barrio de Aeroparque

The following are that stats from this event:

Number of Visitors (total)                24

No miembros                                             18       

Miembros                                                   4        

Miembros nuevos                                       2

                                   

Referencias (Total)                             14

Send the missionaries                                 8         

Contact via email                                        3

References from a friend                            3                                                         

Participation from members (poca, media, mucha)  MUCHA  25

Aeroparque Ward

Missionaries and Members for Instruction

Perfect way to end a blessed day.

L to R Hermana Zegarra, Silva, Chen, Alvarado, Hernandez, Berrios

Member who is ALWAYS smiling and the awesome Bishop Martinez

Unwanted Visitors

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

We went out to find this evening.  1 out 6 were home.  The one was great though. Her name is Yisel and we have another appointment set for Friday evening to help her with family history.  

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Mike took the van in for repair early this morning, so we stayed in our apartment and worked there.  At 2 we headed for the office where I met Charo for piano lessons while Mike had a meeting with the missionaries regarding a “ward mission plan”.  I wrote a very simple version of He Is Risen for Charo to play for Easter.  There were 2 other simple hymns but she liked this one the best.  Glad I took the time to do it.  I studied Spanish a little today while Mike picked up the car at 6:30 pm.  We are still in need of tires, but they couldn’t get hold of Ruben to approve the new tires.  

But, at least the brakes are fixed and we have headlights! 

Friday, April 11, 2014

At the office today we found some interesting visitors. 

Video of Visitors

Elder Gardner observing the phenomenon.

New faucet for our bathroom!  It was leaking through the bottom of the pedestal and leaving a puddle of water on the floor. We finished the powerpoint presentation for Sunday.  We had a charla with Yisel on family history but we also taught her the plan of salvation. It is raining hard tonight.  Hope that doesn’t continue for tomorrow’s open house.

They Have Great Birthday Candles

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Big rain storm last night.  It made for a nice refreshing walk on beach. Worked in the office 10 to 1 pm.  Mike helped Bro Pugmire get his new bed up 8 flights.  Fortunately, it did fit in the elevator.  

We received a package today from Celeste Pellum!  Lots of ranch dressing mix and dip mix. She also sent ring pops candy for all the little ones we visit.  Thank you!  

The Elders love to write on our board.
At least they got it right.  Go Utes!

We helped Elders do banking, and then went to Geant to find some cleaning items we might need for the Aeroparque chapel.  The open house is this Saturday and we want the place looking good.  We bought an electric blanket for the winter that is around the corner.  It will be cheaper to run that, than our electric wall unit. Also bought some blank DVD’s so I can burn conference for a lot of our members that do not have the internet and only have DVD players. 

At 8:30 pm we went to Malvin Ward for more piano lessons for the young women.  They had a birthday celebration for a young woman who was just baptized last week and just turned 12.  

I don't think they know about the fire code for church buidings: Watch: Happy Birthday Link

The Eagle House

Saturday, April 5, 2014

We got up early so we could get all our shopping done before we went sightseeing.

We took our van and the Pugmire’s car. Our group was the Giles, Harris’, Pugmires and us.  We left around 9:30 am and drove about 45 minutes to see a house that looks like an eagle. It was interesting and the beaches up the coast were much cleaner than ours.  I think we are close to a river that dumps into the ocean, so our beach water isn’t as clear. 

At top taking pictures

1979 and 2009

Burnett's  Giles, Harris', Pugmire's

Video Clip:Video

You will never see this in a junkyard in the States!

Bushes growing on the tail.

The Harris’ had us over for conference and fed us sloppy joes and all the trimmings.  I brought my salsa which was well liked.  

Huge birthday candle for Sister Harris.

We had a charla set up in between sessions with Jorge and Ivana.  We got there and no one was home.  I guess we got times mixed up because she was at work.  We decided to walk on down the alley to her mom’s, Ema and Pedro and we found that the Bishop and Relief Society President were visiting.  Ema seemed pleased and happy.  We were happy too!  The ward is really stepping up to the plate!  After conference, Mike brought me back to the apartment. He went to the Malvin chapel to watch priesthood with the missionaries and I studied some Spanish and had a nice visit with Mom and Rhonda via Skype.  Priesthood didn’t start until 9 pm here, so we got to bed around midnight. 

Sunday, April 6, 2014

We stayed in our apartment and watched conference on our laptop.  I thought the whole conference was just great as it always is.

In between sessions we had the monthly “Break the Fast” lunch with the temple missionaries.  This lunch is my marker for how long we have been here.  This was #3.  President Diaz and his sweet wife said their goodbyes.  They are being released at the end of the month. 

The Diaz's gave this to everyone at the luncheon.

After the luncheon, we facetimed with Kira for a bit.  Her hair is getting really long! 

At 8 pm we went to the Sequiera family’s home. (We are still without headlights) Ariel and Roxann and their sons are just fantastic.  Roxann’s mother was there also.  We gave a lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  They were very engaged and I think they learned.  I gave my short Spanish part too.  The best part was being able to facetime with our family.  It was birthday night for our 2 one year olds, Lincoln and Porter and our 15 year old Cecily.  Roxann’s mother was grinning from ear to ear as she watched chaos reign!  I guess it was like watching America’s Funniest Videos.  Uruguay does not have big families, so this was a great experience for them.  We left with a commitment from them to have some lessons on the priesthood and one son ready for the Aaronic priesthood and the other ready for the Melchizedek priesthood.  We came home and visited with our family some more.  Midnight again!

Monday, April 07, 2014

P-Day and it has been raining off and on, so drying our clothes has been challenging. Our bed has our drying racks on top of it because it is very little room.  The sisters came over this afternoon to do email and I fed them of course.  They had never had potato/cheese soup before and they loved it.  It was pretty good.  Went well with my bread and a rainy day.