Elder Andrew Burns: Week 5: Provo MTC

Hello everyone!!

In four days, I will be on my way to Argentina! I am so excited to apply everything I've learned in the MTC and also dive into a completely new culture. We fly from SLC to ATL, ATL to Buenos Aires, then take a small plane to Mendoza (I believe). It will be great.

So as I mentioned last week, I had the ability to meet with President Lindahl who used to be the President of the Mendoza mission. It was so great to learn from someone directly from the mission I'm headed to! He gave us some awesome tips and information: 1. Mendoza gets earthquakes (which he said are fun because they aren't ever severe) 2. Like most of Argentina, the Spanish has an Italian accent (y's and ll's make a soft "g" sound) 3. It's a mix of Latins and Europeans. Lots of cool stuff!!

I was able to host and greet the new missionaries yesterday. It made me so grateful to be done with all the goodbyes. They were hard! It's always funny to see the glossy, wandering eyes of newbies.

Brother Rasmussen (one of my teachers) taught us an amazing way to quickly find needs of investigators. After the end of the first lesson, we NEED to invite to baptism. If they say no, ask them what is holding them back. Once they respond, ask that if all the reasons they mentioned were resolved, would they commit to baptism? If not, then keep asking the same question until they say yes. Problem solved! He's such a funny guy. His style is manipulation because if the gospel is true, why not take the quickest path to it? It's genius!

On Tuesday night after the devotional, we were talking with Brother Dowdle who is in our branch presidency. Basically, he said that "two contradicting desires results in turbulence." We can't completely devote ourselves to a cause if we are still holding onto something else. In the context of a mission, we are expected to leave all personal problems behind us and focus on the work for two years. I have felt the power of that every day! But this also applies to anything else we want to accomplish. We can't ever progress if we're pulling in two different directions.

I love you all!! The next e-mail will be from Argentina!

Mucho Amor,

Elder Andrew Burns