Faith

In Hebrews 11, we learn that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Abraham never lived to see the posterity that God had promised him.  

Moses never stepped foot in the promised land.

These men could have given up, dissapointed that they never saw these promises fulfilled.  They could have lost their faith. 

But they endured and they hoped, that these promises would one day be fulfilled.  

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them" (Hebrews 11:13).

Faith is our choice!  We can decide to keep going, even through the difficulties.  

Faith is the reason why we didn't give up on our investigator, Josefina, after weeks and weeks of teaching her.  Faith is why we didn't drop her even after she said blunty to us, "I will not go to your church."

We could see afar off, Josefina as a good, Mormon woman dressed in white.  And we were persuaded by that promise, and embraced it.  

This weekend, Josefina was finally baptized.  After the baptism, She shared her testimony and told us that she had had a dream that she was dressed in white, and the Savior took her by the hand and led her to the waters of baptism.  The baptism was so special and spiritual and we could not stop laughing out of sheer happiness.  

I hope we can all keep the faith, looking forward to the good things ahead, even as we pass through trials.  

Josefina is so special, and now she stands united with her husband, José!  José climbed up the three flights of stairs to be able to see his wife be confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  

What faith!

And I have faith that miracles will happen on my last week on the mission.  (this week!)

com amor,

Sister Burch

The Super Semana

If you want to be a good, happy missionary, you have to be crazy.  Every day has the potential to be awesome, if you are willing to think outside the box and be totally nuts.  One of the best things I've learned on my mission is how great it is to have absolutely no shame and be unafraid to try new things.  

Knowing that this would be my last transfer, I set some goals and planned to do things that I've never done before.  Our goal was gutsy; to teach 100 lessons in one week.  It sounded sort of unrealistic to most, but we were determined.  We split up our area in 3 parts and every day we planned to go on exchanges with some of the women in our ward.  

Seeing how I am new to the area and have no sense of direction, my lovely companions sent me to the toughest neighborhood in the area; Jardim Nagoya.  (for example: Nagoya Garden is the home of the temple of the Jehovah's witnesses...)  

They sent me off with the bishop's wife with a map in hand and a couple of addresses.  I walked to Nagoya just like Nephi walked to Laban's house,

"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.  Nevertheless I went forth..." (1 Nephi 4).  

I'm still not sure how it happened, but we managed to teach 8 lessons in 3 hours.  

Super Semana was insane and so tiring, but we managed to close off the week with....

 104 lessons taught!

God is good to us.  He gave us the strength, I am sure of it. 

Love you all!!!

beijos,

Sister Burch 

This is Brazil trying to scare me to death!

A New Year and A New Start

Happy New Year friends and family!  

I have always loved New Years.  It is a clean slate, a fresh start, and a time to reflect on all of the good things that have happened.  2014 was pure happiness to me!  It was not easy, not perfect,, but looking back, even the bad times turn into good memories.

Something that President Del Guerso always tells us missionaries is that we have got to live our lives with the end in mind.  So, even though 2015 just began, we should think and plan what we want to say we have done.  That way, we will know what our goals and objectives are, and we will use our time wisely. 

No matter how many difficult things have happened this past year, or how many times we may have seemed to fail in the past, it is never too late to start over again.  Because of Jesus Christ, there are no real endings.  God wants us to be happy and reach our full potential in this life, and in order to reach our full potential, we must think big! 

Our progress may seem slow, but just as a tree starts off as a tiny seed, "by small and simple means are great things brought to pass." 

There is an old proverb that says, "the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.  The second-best time is now." 

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said,"There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word now.‍ There is something empowering about the fact that if wechoose to decide now, we can move forward at this very moment.
Now‍ is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be—not only 20 years from now but also for alleternity."
We spent New Years with some members, eating churrasco, playing with animals, and taking in every moment!

Holidays in Vargem Grande