Family and Friends,
So from last week- the Pentecostal Church. We were invited by an investigator we are teaching. The Service was two and a half hours long. It began with 45 minutes of ground-shaking music- giutars, drums, keyboards, and singers. Next was a guy who came up and cried as he paced back and forth, giving a five munite speach thanking god for the spirit he had sent to the congregation. The Pastor spoke alittle, then we heard from a speaker. He wasn't a very good puclic speaker. Imaging the most boring sacrament talk you have ever heard, and stretch that out for 40 minutes in a language you can't completely understand. While he spoke, people from the audience would randomly shout "Gloria a Dios!" or "Halleluijah!" or "Cristo Viene!" After the speaker, the was a healing. People who needed to be healed would come up front. The Pastor would shout at them for a few minutes and tell them to be healed. The service was concluded by another 30 minutes of music. It was such a contrast from what I am used to.
The people were all really nice. They all wanted to shake our hand afterward. I hope us going there opened up some doors, and that those people can feel the peace that spirit brings in the right enviroment.
I will include an excerpt from my letter to President Kunz:
"The Munoz family here is kind of the trunk of the Spanish part of the Branch. But a week or two ago, Brother Munoz got some anti-Mormon stuff from a co-worker. He ended up going online and found some stuff that really shook his testimony. They haven't come to church in four weeks. But we talked to them last week and this week, and got a lot of things straightened out. Yesterday we got a member to go with us to their house, and we shared our testimonies. It was all really powerful. I was thankful that we had the spirit. Elder Shumway shared Heleman 5:12, and it seemed like the scripture was written just for him.
Without the Munozs there, we have only had two or three people in our spanish class the last few weeks. We have had many investigators say they wanted to come to church buth then not show up. Elder Shumway and I have been talking a little bit about it and we both feel that without the Munoz family there, as the trunk, it is stunting the Spanish part of our branch. We feel that Heavenly Father doesn't want investigators to come to church without the strength of that family there. We will continue to work our best and hopefully we will see the fruits of our labors."
That's easier than writing it again for you guys.
On another note, the priesthood relief society is using the same book as the gospel principles class. This means that we get two lessons from the same book right in a row in our Spanish class. I guess we need it. Back to the Basics.
For those of you who don't know, there is a little joke that goes around our house about spanish commercials on American products. The commercials have some hispanic person doing the commentary in their fast, monotone voice, then, all of the suddeen, they say the product name in completely clear english. "SCRUBBING BUBBLES" or "SUPER BLENDER" and immediately drop back into spanish. I have heard several commercials like that here in Schuyer, and it catches me off guard every time. Spanish people never turn off their TVs. They just turn the volume way doen when we come. Maybe this is because they still want to be up to date on their "novela" (soap opera).
About 70 percent of the Spanish-speakers here are from Guatemala. Most are from a town of about 40,000 named Chichihualco. Because of this, there are two "Tiendas de Guatemala" here. They are like a little guatemala. They sell all the authentic stuff, and everyone there speaks Spanish. They are fun to go into to just brouse.
I have 4 minutes left, so it looks like I need to be done. I love you all. Until next week,
-Elder Burnham
So from last week- the Pentecostal Church. We were invited by an investigator we are teaching. The Service was two and a half hours long. It began with 45 minutes of ground-shaking music- giutars, drums, keyboards, and singers. Next was a guy who came up and cried as he paced back and forth, giving a five munite speach thanking god for the spirit he had sent to the congregation. The Pastor spoke alittle, then we heard from a speaker. He wasn't a very good puclic speaker. Imaging the most boring sacrament talk you have ever heard, and stretch that out for 40 minutes in a language you can't completely understand. While he spoke, people from the audience would randomly shout "Gloria a Dios!" or "Halleluijah!" or "Cristo Viene!" After the speaker, the was a healing. People who needed to be healed would come up front. The Pastor would shout at them for a few minutes and tell them to be healed. The service was concluded by another 30 minutes of music. It was such a contrast from what I am used to.
The people were all really nice. They all wanted to shake our hand afterward. I hope us going there opened up some doors, and that those people can feel the peace that spirit brings in the right enviroment.
I will include an excerpt from my letter to President Kunz:
"The Munoz family here is kind of the trunk of the Spanish part of the Branch. But a week or two ago, Brother Munoz got some anti-Mormon stuff from a co-worker. He ended up going online and found some stuff that really shook his testimony. They haven't come to church in four weeks. But we talked to them last week and this week, and got a lot of things straightened out. Yesterday we got a member to go with us to their house, and we shared our testimonies. It was all really powerful. I was thankful that we had the spirit. Elder Shumway shared Heleman 5:12, and it seemed like the scripture was written just for him.
Without the Munozs there, we have only had two or three people in our spanish class the last few weeks. We have had many investigators say they wanted to come to church buth then not show up. Elder Shumway and I have been talking a little bit about it and we both feel that without the Munoz family there, as the trunk, it is stunting the Spanish part of our branch. We feel that Heavenly Father doesn't want investigators to come to church without the strength of that family there. We will continue to work our best and hopefully we will see the fruits of our labors."
That's easier than writing it again for you guys.
On another note, the priesthood relief society is using the same book as the gospel principles class. This means that we get two lessons from the same book right in a row in our Spanish class. I guess we need it. Back to the Basics.
For those of you who don't know, there is a little joke that goes around our house about spanish commercials on American products. The commercials have some hispanic person doing the commentary in their fast, monotone voice, then, all of the suddeen, they say the product name in completely clear english. "SCRUBBING BUBBLES" or "SUPER BLENDER" and immediately drop back into spanish. I have heard several commercials like that here in Schuyer, and it catches me off guard every time. Spanish people never turn off their TVs. They just turn the volume way doen when we come. Maybe this is because they still want to be up to date on their "novela" (soap opera).
About 70 percent of the Spanish-speakers here are from Guatemala. Most are from a town of about 40,000 named Chichihualco. Because of this, there are two "Tiendas de Guatemala" here. They are like a little guatemala. They sell all the authentic stuff, and everyone there speaks Spanish. They are fun to go into to just brouse.
I have 4 minutes left, so it looks like I need to be done. I love you all. Until next week,
-Elder Burnham