A Blast from the Past!

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Happy Valentine's Day!

I found this cute litte guy on my pillow!

My wall decorated for the holiday.

A sweet note from Hna Orme who is home is AZ now.

Capilla Abierta for Prosperidad Branch.
I think the holiday weekend (Carnival) prevented a good turnout of people. The members that could come did a great presentation. Many references were given. One of the references has already been contacted and the missionaries called me, very excited because the contact was very strong and a baptism date has been scheduled. This contact also has older children and they are hopeful to convert the whole family!  Elder Taylor thanked us most graciously for going to the huge effort of doing Capilla Abierta's for Uruguay.
YouTube: Capilla Abierta Prosperidad

Beautiful pepper tree. Just had to take a photo.

Properidad has a very active and strong group of young women.
They just returned from going to the Temple.

We made resident status I guess. Flia. (Familia) Burnett 714.
I also received my "green card", cedula, so I am here legally now.
Next step, drivers license. (I have to seriously think about this one.)

Sunday, February 15, 2015
What a very special day, all the way through.  It started with a training we did in the Ferrocarrill Ward.  Their Sacrament meeting started first (which is unusual) because another ward shares the building. We were asked to share our testimonies so we were sitting on the stand. Mike was talking with the Bishop and I am going to let him tell it from here:
Mike here.. The Bishop asked a few of the usual questions like what parts of Uruguay did I serve in on my first mission 43 years ago.  When I mentioned La Floresta, he said that this ward was originally part of the La Floresta ward which is now several wards.  We were asked to share our testimonies in sacrament meeting so I mentioned that I had served in La Floresta and spoke of a few memorable moments there.  After the meeting a small group came up front to tell me they remembered those days and that they remembered me, but the most startling thing was when one of them pulled 3 photos of me out of her purse.  It was from my 20th birthday and the day I was called to be a branch president in another branch, so it was a good bye party as well.  I have a copy of one of those photos at home.  She was just a young girl when the photo was taken.  Wow.. What a wonderful reunion.

Elder Burnett and Elder Croft

Right after Sacrament meeting we went to another room and quickly set up our projector, sound, and laptop to give our training.  We could not stay for the last hour because we had to get home and pack our bags for Treinta Tres which is a 4 hour road trip.  We had a family history presentation that the Elders set up for us for the ward council at 6 pm.  We had the perfect plan.  And when we arrived, it was blown apart.  It wasn't for a small group, people from the stake came and we had it in the chapel. Their overhead projector wouldn't connect to my laptop, so for the first hour it was Mike presenting as best he could without familysearch. Finally, we got a flat screen from the Stake President's office and we did a smidget of familysearch photos, stories, and entering names.
I think we got a few more motivated after our presentation.  We gave them our phone number if they wanted any further training.
But, we also found some old books of days gone by that were just sitting in the hallway, not protected or anything. We told the bishop he needed to secure them in their family history center and then he proceeded to show us more!  What a treasure of information for the people of Uruguay.  I am going to call Salt Lake and ask them how to best give them this information so that it can be indexed. Uruguay has so few records for documentation.  I feel this is very important and needs to be preserved.
We spent the night in TreintayTres, (two star at best).

Monday, February 16, 2015
We made deliveries today in Treinta y Tres.  Emergency food, heat/smoke detectors, cleaning charts, and chart on how to de-ice a freezer.  I made bunches of cookies before I left and we delivered those as well.

We picked up some Elders along the way and gave them a short ride to their apartment.

We left Treinta y Tres and headed for the border town of Chuy.  We stopped by Lascano to give them their things and fix an array of problems.  Mike had to put a sink back on the wall, fix the plumbing, and fix their falling apart beds.  

They had their beds tied together with rope and
stuffed blankets underneath. 

On our way through the rice fields and on to Chuy, we enjoyed the scenery which included a full rainbow and a big crane.  He was standing as still as a statue.  We turned around to try and get his

picture, but he flew off before I could take it.  I got a little bit of him though. 

Can you see the beginnings of a rainbow?

This is usually all the rainbow you ever get in Uruguay.

But not today! Two pots of gold for sure!

Rainbow amidst the rice fields and palm trees.

We arrived in Chuy about 8 pm and made a visit to the Elders there.  Got up the next morning and headed back to Montevideo with one stop along the way.  It was a long drive home because everyone was headed back to the city from their holiday weekend.  We played leap frog all the way to Pan de Azucar.  There the road turns into a 4 lane highway.  Grateful for a safe trip once again.