Results of Following Small Promptings

Sunday, November 22, 2015

What another great day for Elder Burnett. We arose from our hobbit bed at 5 am. We had a 3 hour drive to Maldonado and needed to arrive at 8:30 am.  This is our last capacitacion and it was a bit different. We met with the ward council instead of the whole ward. They had a training 2 years ago and the Bishop felt they did not really need another one.  This Bishop is a little ball of fire.  Wow! They are doing a live manger scene, along with the capilla abierta and other activities.  Everyone in the meeting had specific assignments. It should be a great event.  After the meeting we debated about driving the 2 hours back to Montevideo and attend our sacrament meeting so that we could befriend Ariel and Roxanna if they came.  We decided against it and stayed. Maldanado's sacrament meeting started at 9:30.  The Bishop needed to fill in some time so he asked us to share our testimonies at the end of the meeting.
When we were getting ready to leave, a sister came up to Mike and introduced herself as the daughter of Hermana Silva.  Instant tears came.

This was the one other convert that Mike had wanted to find.  At the time he baptized her, she had 2 small daughters that were always with her. They were too young for baptism at the time, but they were baptized later.  Hermana Silva is still living in Colonia. The daughter's name is Rosa.  We hope to be able to go back to Colonia and find Hermana Silva.

Small promptings to have us stay for sacrament meeting and the Bishop asking us to share our testimonies brought this great blessing to Elder Burnett today.

We did two more zone conferences this week and while we were in Minas, we decided to go visit the Salus' Fuente de Puma.  Salus is a huge company that sells all the bottled spring water.  This is supposed to be the original water spring.

Elder Burnett has the arm pose thing down too!

Crates full of bottled water.

Video: Salus Tour

Los Últimos Días

We are in "The Last Days" or "Los últimos días".

We will miss these sunsets from our balcony.

Everything we do now, we are saying this is our last.....

Oro Conference, Friday, November 20, 2015

The pictures below were drawn by an hermana who is an oro.  It is the progression of the mission life.  However, for me I started with the last photo and progressed to the first. :)

Saturday, November 21, 2015
This is not our last capilla abierta, but almost.  We drove three hours up to Treinta y Tres and presented in the Olimar and Yerbal wards. Another well attended event and almost 70 references.

YouTube: Capilla Abierta de Olimar y Yerbal

Our reference table

Bishop and granddaughter

In the primary room, they had an opportunity to teach the children.

She has the arm stance down pat!

A once upon a time office elder. Elder Torres

L to R Elders: Cruz, Salus, Torres, Budini, Bekker, Beck
Hermanas: Hill, Antipani, Anguiano, Suarez, Arenas, Mortensen, 

While in Treinta y Tres we had a bucket list item. Because we had 2 more grandchildren while on our mission that made our count: treinta y tres = Thirty-three

We also decided to save some drive time and spend the night. That would save three hours driving time.  On Sunday we had a training in Maldonado.  This was their "best" room. I thought maybe we were given Bilbo Baggins' room.

I Am in My Element

I am in my element!  See more below.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Capilla Abierta for the San Jose de Carrasco Ward. This ward did wonderful. They invited their friends and the missionaries received many references. One week later I received a report from the sister missionaries and they were very excited. Because of the capilla abierta they are now teaching a family and a couple.  It has been months since they have been able to teach investigators.  This family and couple were brought by members.  Excellent work!

Video: Capilla Abierta de San Jose de Carrasco

This was a trophy won by the women's volleyball team.
I have never seen anyone ever play volleyball here.

First Place, Volleyball

Family History Consultant

L to R: Hermanas Hollander, Robles, Ramirez, Coleman, Paul, Riggs
Elders Leite, Carroll, Balke, Richmond

Found out that Hermana Paul has a talent!

Sunday, November 15, 2015

We were asked to help the La Costa Stake with their family history event held this night. We brought our laptops, iPad, iPhone, and android.  We received our assignment when we arrived. We helped people get a familysearch account.  I was very impressed at how well it was organized and well attended. 

YouTube Video: Evento de Historia Familiar

Our charts we brought from home.

The Bucket List Has Begun

Saturday, November 7, 2015

It has begun!

Capilla Abierta en el Barrio 9.
The members did a great effort in bringing their friends.  Also, the youth that play soccer at the church were invited in and they participated. Lots of references were also given by the members.
They had a successful night.

YouTube: Capilla Abierta de Barrio 9

This was Hermana Nira Gomez de Stocco who was a convert of
Elder Schallenberger who was in the mission with Mike the first time.

Any spare moments and the missionaries love to listen to Elder Burnett
teach the doctrine.

LtoR: Elders Worwood, Paskett, Shurtz, Rollins, Primo, Gehring
Hermanas Thorne, Stewart, Cristobal, Hall, Robles, Hollander

Went by an Elder's apartment to check on a few things and noticed this on their wall. Peligro means danger.  The Elders are not allowed to wander into these dangerous areas.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

We had to rise and shine early this Sunday morning to be to church by 9 am.  Treinta y Tres is a 3 hour drive.  President Dutra invited us over for almuerzo after the block.  What a great family!  They wondered if we had watched or listened to The Piano Guys.  I mentioned to them that Jon was the in-law of my good friend and neighbor and that we had been able to attend some of his concerts.  We decided to take a picture and send it to Cathy to let The Piano Guys know that their influence is even in the small country of Uruguay.