Chencho from Argentina Visits for the Weekend

Surprise visit from Chencho!

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!  Sweet Hermana Cook just couldn't resist not having a Thanksgiving feast in her home.  The original plan was to just go out and eat some where.  So, she bought a turkey and the rest of us married couples helped with the trimmings.  I did the mashed potatoes and 2 pumpkin pies. I surprised myself with the crust I made.  Usually my daughter, Laura, does the pies.
My post from facebook that day: Happy Thanksgiving to my family! We have been so blessed and are very thankful for every one of them. We are thankful for the blessings of the gospel and the blessings of the temple that keeps us together forever! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us and although I cannot comprehend all that has been provided for us, I am grateful.

We got "gobbled" on our front door.

Friday - Monday November 27-30, 2015

What an unexpected surprise this weekend. Chencho and Monika from Cordoba, Argentina made us a surprise visit. They were going to stay in the hostel at the temple, but the temple has been closed for 2 weeks and so has the hostel. Chencho's brother and his wife also came.  So, we had guests in our apartment and it was so fun.  We had no capilla abiertas scheduled and were able to play tour guide for them.  They had never been to Punta del Este. They went to church with us and seemed to know people from Malvin. Monika served her mission in Malvin.  

Saturday, November 28, 2015

We had the opportunity to invite the Sequiera family over for a dinner with us.  What awesome friends they have been. They were menos activos that we searched out when we first arrived. We could always feel their good spirits and we had hoped they would find their way back to church activity because they have so much good they could share with others.  They have been coming to church now for 8 weeks! We have asked them to let us know when they will be sealed in the temple. 

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.