La Fin

September 25th, 2017

It was my last full week as a missionary and it went pretty well.

To start off, we got to teach Molly again about the restoration. And it went pretty well. She's really cool. She talks a lot and is kind of all over the place but we managed to control the lesson and present what we needed to. 

Then Tuesday night we had our first sit-down rendezvous with Emmanuel. He is so cool, man. He was very curious and asked lots of good questions. He very happily took a Book of Mormon and committed to read it. The spirit was very present in the rendezvous and we all felt it.

We also had exchanges with our ZLs here in Brussels. It was cool to teach in French again. We taught this middle-aged flemish lady who seemed a little strange at first but then realized she had a lot of hard things in her life. She's met with us before in the past but doesn't remember a whole lot.  She had a BOM already but hadn't read it because she didn't have the time. Hopefully she will give it another chance. 

We had many a mangezvous as well. The members in this ville really know how to take care of their missionaries. I once again had to say goodbye to this ville. And it was a little sad but I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to serve here for six months. 

And there you have it. My mission is now coming to an end in a couple of days. It's been and incredible journey. It was a long roller-coaster ride and it was so worth it. Everything has its season and I know despite my mission ending that the next one will be great, too. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

I love you all and have an amazing week. 

Avec amour,

Elder Aburto

Mon Objectif

September 18^th, 2017

Another week gone,

It's been yet another week gone by in the mission field. Little by little the time just gets shorter and at the same time the work gets more enjoyable. We had some nice experiences this week.

We were pretty unlucky in terms of being able to get rendezvous with Amis, but c'est pas grave because went you're not able to set up rendezvous, that's the Lord telling you to go finding. And that's what we did. 

A couple of nights ago we went street contacting, and we came across a man and stopped him. He stopped to listen and seemed very happy to see us. Though the time we had to talk was extremely short, the good feeling of the spirit was present and he told us at the end of our exchange of words that he felt good to see us and felt the good feeling inside. We both felt it, too. We're going to see him this week to share more of our message with him. 

A few minutes later a very similar experience happened. We stopped another man who most happily stayed to listen to us. He was a believer, baptized in another church but doesn't necessarily associate himself with just one church. We came in and explained our beliefs a little, and he was captivated. He said he felt a good feeling inside while talking with us and hopes to see us again, soon. 

It felt good to know that we were able to bring the spirit with us to those people, so they could recognize us as representatives of the Lord. There's just nothing quite as satisfying. 

Mais bon, the week to come will be in effect the last full week of my missionary service so I'll try make it a good one. 

Until next time. 

Love, 

Elder Aburto

Multilingual

September 11^th, 2017

Bonjour, tout le monde,

Yet another week has gone by on my mission experience. It's great to be able to be in the service of others soon before I go back to focusing on my life and my future. It's been a nice week. It was a lot like any other in a lot of ways. But at the same time it was unique.

Something we've noticed is that there are a lot of Portuguese speakers in this ville and some of them don't understand Spanish super well, so my companion and I have taken on the task of learning some Portuguese. We aren't close to fluent but we can manage to communicate with people. We found this Brazilian lady who seemed pretty interested through that. We have lots of Portuguese members as well, so no problem.

We found a cool Peruvian lady, named Rosa. She's pretty catholic as usual, but she very kindly accepted to hear our message. We're going to try to see her sometime this upcoming week.

Boy, it sure has downpoured here the last few days. It's almost like Hurricane Harvey made its way up to Europe because we've had our fair share of precipitation as well.

We also had a rendezvous scheduled with Molly. She wasn't there, but her sister was there, so we ended up teaching her a little. We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and she seemed pretty touched by it. She already has a strong conviction of Christ and she openly accepted a copy. Looks like good things could happen there. 

 And there you have it. Another week down the drain. Only a couple more left. May you all have a great week. 

With love, 

Elder Aburto

It’s Wonderful

September 4^th, 2017

Hey, 

This last week was full of mangezvous and rendezvous. Man, it sure is exhausting to run around busy all the time. It was great. We got to see some of our Amis and we can start to kind of see the work continue progressively since we've came in. 

It started off with Zone Conference and interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday. I had my last interview ever which is weird to say. It was my last zone conference ever and it was six hours long. It was nice to hear more from the new mission president and see what he expects out of us. He's definitely got the fire and the energy to motivate us. I know he is doing his best effort and it doesn't seem too terribly rough on him so far. 

We had a lunch appointment with Vilma. She cooked us a full course meal including salad and dessert. She told us she was firmly Catholic, but accepted the Book of Mormon quand-même. She seemed pretty interested in it and she committed to read it. It was so cool to have her cook for us and listen to us as well. She's super nice. 

We met with a current ami for the first time, Marie. She is a young Ecuadorian. She works long hours everyday so we went to her house Saturday morning. And she cooked us breakfast. She's very respectful and she believes in her ways, but took in the message well. She is going to start reading the Book of Mormon, too. 

Then we saw another current ami, Molly. She's from Haiti and super cool. She was pressed for time but it was great to get to know her. I feel great about the people we have here and I know we can advance the work here in this sector. 

It's definitely going well. As I'm arriving at the finishing line I realize more and more how precious time is for a missionary. Before I'll know it, my plaque won't be on my chest anymore and the mission will end. I just need to use the time I have left to serve and help this ville. 

Take care and have a good week. 

Sincerely, 

Elder Aburto

Una Fiesta Latina

August 28th, 2017

Bonjour à tous, 

T-minus thirty-one days left as I'm writing this email. Time is really short now. It's crazy how once apon a time I had two years left on my mission, and now I'm only down to a month. How crazy time is... 

It was a nice week of missionary work. It was a little up and down and all over the place with some rendezvous falling through and the wrap-up of the summer vacation season. But we had some nice things happen as well. 

We had a nice Ecuadorian mangezvous with the Castañeda family. Man, they cook so much food and it's so delicious. I missed eating South American food. 

We found a cool family from Colombia. They're actually from the same town where Elder Dorado was born. It was a young woman with her mother and like most Latinos are practicing Christians who love Jesus. They're very nice and accepted a rendezvous for this upcoming week. Dorado was thrilled to see that. 

Also, we found another lady, Vilma, who's from Ecuador. She's an older woman and she's a practicing Catholic. She kind of knows who we are but doesn't really know our beliefs. She says she'll never change religions but accepted one rendez-vous, hopefully we'll make it two. 

And also this last weekend, there was a Fiesta Latina in a huge park here in Brussels and our Ward Mission Leader told us to go check it out, so we went and it turns out it was all gated and you had to buy tickets to get in. Funny enough, right outside the entrance were two Mexican Jehovah Witness would had the same idea as us. It was apparent that they weren't seeing much success as they looked rather bored.

Mais bon, it was a nice week as I said. And remember if life gets rough or you're feeling down, just remember that the Church is true. 

Que Dieu vous bénisse. 

Love, 

Elder Aburto

Picture of the Embassy of Qatar

Back to the Start

August 20th, 2017

Greetings from Bruxelles.

It's been just an amazing week to live as a missionary. It felt like an eternity, but it's going really good. Leaving Brest was a little sad, and I basically didn't have anytime to do anything besides packing. Transfer Day was stressful and hectic as usual, but at the end of the day I made it back to Brussels safe and sound.

My new comp is Elder Dorado. He's from Calgary, Alberta but he was born in Colombia. He's hilarious. He makes me laugh hard multiple times a day. Finishing a mission is easy with him as a companion.

We whitewashed in so it's like a new clean slate for the équipe. We've been doing lots of finding so we're starting out things a little slowly. We did, en fait, get a chance to meet one of our amis, Lupe. She's an older woman from Ecuador. She's very sweet and loves life. It seems like she might like having us around merely for good company, but we'll see in the upcoming visits.

I been able to see lots of the members and good friends that I made forever ago when I started my mission. Everyone else seems happy to see me, too. It feels kind of weird to be back as a missionary, because it reminds me of the young, foolish missionary I was in the past. I'm really grateful for this chance I have to serve Brussels for another transfer.

Time will really fly by. I can feel it already. My goal is to simply make these last six weeks the funnest six weeks of my mission.

I wish you all an amazing week.

Love,

Elder Aburto

Once Upon a Mission

August 14^th, 2017

What a great week.

It all started on Wednesday with a great rendezvous with Thierry. We went over the gospel of Jesus Christ with him in 2 Nephi 31. He loved it and it all made sense to him. It was his birthday the next day, so we went over and gave him a card and a little gift. He recognizes us as servants of the Lord, but also as his friends. It was nice to spend some time with him on his birthday.

Then we found this awesome new ami, Audrey. She's from Gabon and she's a very believing Christian. We had a short first rendezvous but it went great. She met with missionaries a good while ago and was very happy to be able to talk with us again. She seems pretty cool.

We met up with a potential, Mohammed, and we had dinner with him at Flunch. The food was alright, but the discussion was a lot better. He's a young Muslim man, yet he's very open-minded. He very willingly took a BOM and said he'd read it. So, on verra.

Then we had a soirée familiale with a less-active family on Friday with some other members. They hadn't been to church in a while, so we went over to see how they were doing. It went pretty good. We emphasized the importance of the sacrament and taking it regularly. Well, it turns out, they made it to church on Sunday. Go figure.

On Saturday we had a Finding Day in Lorient. Turns out, it was the last one for a while. It went good. The branch had a lot of members come and help us out.

Today is Monday and with the new mission president things have changed and we got the news for next transfer today. Well... I'm leaving Brest to another area.  But the area won't be foreign to me because I've already served there before. In fact it was my "Bleu ville". Yeah. I'm going back to Brussels for my last six weeks as a missionary and I'll go back to the Spanish équipe. My new companion is Elder Dorado, from Canada. We'll be white-washing. It's a dream come true. Christmas came early this year. These next six weeks will literally fly by.

God bless.

Love,

Elder Aburto