June 17

Dear dear family,

Kirsten had the baby!!!!! i opened the picture and said wow, cute. one of the boys holding Aubrey then i thought....wait, those are not janae's freckles those are kirsten's!!!!  What great news! thank you Mom for sending the pictures! Christian, we went to the temple on Thursday and i loved it! i thought of you lots while i was there. I really wanted to be there when you received your endowments but things are as they are and for a reason. i hope you know how much i love and admire your preparation and focus for your mission. You will never ever regret in all all your life and after preparing well for the things that matter most. Your mission will be a landmark for your life. a highlight and will teach you patterns, skills, and priorities to be applied upon learning them. Really and truly i feel that humility is one of the greatest keys to success. When we are humble we can learn. Without humility we will never learn from others and there are always others who can help. Most importantly our savior and our heavenly father. They are eager to bless us. There are many who are humble that learn the principles from hearing them but without applying there is no understanding of that principle. It is absolutely key to act on the instruction and revelation received. When we do not we show a lack of respect, esteem, faith and love for divinity. I love the Lord and feel undeserving at times of his help and his blessings. BUT i do not believe he wants us to feel in His debt but rather to recognize the source, thank the source, then share with others the help and blessings we have received and with Prayer he will open minds and hearts. Ours and theirs! The hymn Be thou Humble teaches us well the character of Christ and need we have of humility. 

Well, The work in Paradise is booming! When we went to the temple on Thursday we decided to fast. I fasted for Sister zegarra's family, For christian in his temple preparation, and last that we would be enabled and assisted in meeting the needs of EVERY investigator in the area. I really don't want anyone to fall through the cracks because of my disorganization, forgetfulness, poor planning, or ignorance....whatever it may be. We work hard but every friday during weekly planning the weight of responsibility burdens my mind and i feel overwhelmed. Thankfully, God answers prayers very quickly! While we were in the temple, we recieved 2 calls from sister neider. We called back and within the hour we had a third companion, sister Bateman! She is waiting for her visa to go to brazil and has already been a great blessing. We are already doing splits to get more people visited and helped. We love her and are glad she is here!

As for the work, Flor and dionicio recieved well the law of chastity lesson adn are praying about it this week. We also taught Follow the prophet in a FHE with some members and it went surprisingly well. We are working with them lots and they are such a cute family. Also, Esteban is struggling. He is flaking on the appointments and his wife has been out of town so he has been drinking again. Please pray for Him. He does love the Lord but temptation is fogging his view and his goals. 

I love you all dearly and know that the Lord is blessing you. Thank you for your support and prayers! Hurrah for Israel!

Love

Hermana Burrup

ps- janae, thank you for the card and pictures. i loved them. SIster Amanda Lake looked at the pictures and said...."wait, i know her!" from belmont the month after your mission. do you remember her?

pss- mom, you said in the last email that there was no new growth in dad's brain scans....was there ever growth there? please keep my updated.

ps- scriptures read in the temple. First i read dyc 71:3 which freaked me out. saying that my mission is short. then dyc 62:2 - my mission is not yet done. It comforted me a little. than last was   dyc 31....specifically verses 3-4 for christian. Start today to be a missionary! sure love you all! thanks again!

Dear President Neider,

We love having Sister Bateman! Sister Zegarra and I were and still are so excited to have her here. We are looking forward to the next weeks. This week was a great week. We have some investigators that are really progressing well and others we are trying not to lose. We also started teaching a part member family through family home evenings this week. We have had a big struggle getting started with them but God always provides a way. We prayed with faith, prepared for the lesson, and expected them to keep the appointment. I love the Lord president, and i love his children. I am so grateful for the honor to be a missionary here and now. I am humbled by my call, and humbled by my many weaknesses but oh so grateful for our savior and the tender mercies. Thank you president, again, for blessing us with another transfer together, with sister Bateman, and the opportunity to be in paradise. We know you are inspired! Hurrah for Israel!

Love

Hermana Burrup