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

Keeping Afloat

August 7^th, 2017

Bonjour à tous,

Well, times just gets shorter and shorter and you come to realize that you don't have much time left. I feel like it's just starting to soak in that my mission is ending in less than two months. I don't know what to think. I don't know how to because I've never completed a mission before, but I understand that there is a time for everything and one needs to appreciate life as it happens. Soon enough, I won't be a missionary anymore, and I miss serving in this capacity. So I need to take advantage of the opportunity at hand.

This week was good. Our boy, Thierry is progressing well. We had a family home evening at a member’s home and he came and had a great time. The fellowshipping of the members is making an impact on him, and I'm so grateful for them and their support.

As you may know, the branch here is pretty small, and this last Sunday we had a family move out. So the branch is looking even smaller for now. Our branch president is really pushing to have the members find the less-actives and help them. Yesterday we had two less-active families come to church for the first time in a long time. So there is hope out there.

We found this guy about a week ago who left us his address. He said he lived in a hotel and gave us the room number. We weren't sure if it was just a straight up lie or not, so we went to go check it out. It turns out there's this placed named Hotel de la Rade which is actually a refugee shelter. It looks like a hotel from the outside but everyone there is taken care of by the government. Nice, huh? We haven't found the guy yet though.

Keep having fun.

Love,

Elder Aburto

Pouring Rain

July 31^st, 2017

Hello and bonjour,

This week really flew by, since we've been all over the place, so I don't know how long this one will be. Nonetheless, we had a great time once again.

Thierry is going well. We taught him the plan of salvation and he loved it. When we were talking about the afterlife, he asked if animals get resurrected too, because his cat died a while ago and he misses him. It was nice to let him know that he will have the chance to see his cat again through the plan of salvation. It made me remember of my dogs that have passed away in my life. Where it's sad to see our loved ones die, but life doesn't end at death.

He's progressing slowly as well. He's reading the Book of Mormon and loves the passages he reads and we read a chapter weekly with him.

We also went to Paris once again this week for Elder Ho's legality. Boy, did we spend a lot of money on transportation. Paris is a nice place to visit, but it sure is expensive.

We had our finding day on Brest on Saturday and it was raining hard. Nonetheless, we went out and did what was needed. We ended up getting several potentials among both equipes, and hopefully we'll be able to fix rendezvous with those people. We've seen that right now, a lot of people are on vacation, so it's hard to see most people currently.

But, yeah. This week literally just flew by.  Hope this next week will go slower so that we can get more work done here.

See you next time.

Love,

Elder Aburto

Pioneer Day

July 24^th, 2017

Hey,

Happy Pioneer’s Day!

It's been a good week with another Zone Conference and a week full of work in Brest, so let's get to it:

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and it went great. I can tell President Sorensen feels pretty uncertain and inexperienced about himself, but I know he will do a good job. He emphasized finding and miracles a lot, and made an initiative to have 20 solid contacts per day, and 140 per week. We understand that it's not super easy around here to get that accomplished, but it's possible.

Starting our goal to have 20 good contacts a day (consisting of a principle taught and a commitment extended), we've seen some good fruits already. We found this very nice and open older woman, named Valerie, and we had our first sit down rendezvous with her last week at her house. She's an English professor so her English is basically flawless. She's very catholic and practicing, but didn't say no to having a discussion. So we had a discussion and gave her a BOM. She seemed quite engaged. She's going on vacation soon so we'll probably see her again in a couple of weeks.

Another guy we've met is a man named Jean-Marie. We stopped him on the street and he came off very sympathetic and calm. It turns out that he actually has met with us in the past and had a great time learning from the missionaries and going to church. But all of that stopped for some reason. He considers himself Christian and Jewish and embraces all good things. He's just all-around a good, respectable guy. He's going on vacation this week, too, so we'll see him in a couple of weeks, hopefully.

Our boy Thierry is doing well. He read Alma 22 on his own and marveled at the teachings found therein. He's embracing everything we give him so well, and it's making a difference in himself. He's truly finding the peace and comfort found in the gospel. He has some word of wisdom issues, but we're confident he can fix those.

And voila, there it is. What a better way to celebrate the day when the saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley to establishe the church, than as a missionary.

I hope you stay safe and have a fantastic week,

Love,

Elder Aburto

La Fête Nationale

July 17^th, 2017

Bonjour, tout le monde,

It's been another good week in the life of missionary work. I'm now getting to the stage when the end is approaching quite soon, so many emotions go on simultaneously. Regardless, the work must go on.

We saw Thierry again this week and he's doing well. We followed up on the Retab and it went great. We committed him to start reading the Book of Mormon and he gladly accepted. He's going well.

We saw Jeremie again, after a little of not seeing him, and he's doing alright. We had a nice talk about his progression, and what's keeping him from being baptized. He's come to grow a testimony of the things we've taught him, he's just a little worried about the commitment to be baptized. We helped him understand that it's just a step along our eternal progression and we're not going to be perfect. The thing is as well that his sleep schedule is terrible which doesn't let him come to church in the mornings either. We have hope that he'll be able to
change, little by little.

Our ami, Anina, came to church and expressed that she wanted to continue meeting with us, but her husband doesn't like us and doesn't want us to come to their house. It made us sad to hear that, but she said she'll keep talking to him to try to convince him that what we're doing really is good. We hope it goes well.

Well, this upcoming week we'll have yet another Zone Conference with the Sorensens. 7-week transfers, new president, new vision, etc. They're saying there'll be lots of important information in this one.

We just celebrated Bastille Day here. July 14th was like the Independence Day of France. Every company in the nation was closed for the day and there was a big celebration at night with fireworks. Too bad we couldn't go.

All in all, it was a nice week. As always, this next week has lots to look forward to. What an exciting life it is, being a missionary.

À la prochaine,

Love,

Elder Aburto

Une Rencontre Avec Les Sorensen

July 10^th, 2017

Hello everyone,

What a nice week we had. It was special because I finally got the opportunity to meet my new mission president, President Sorensen and his family. Boy, do they look young. I swear Pres. Sorensen could be like my older brother because that guy looks like he's in his thirties. My heart goes out to this family because they're so young and all the kids are young. The kids seem to be in really good spirits despite being in a different place with a big language barrier. But anyways, we had our Sorensen Conference in Rennes on Thursday, with the Sorensens. And the parents introduced themselves to us. I noticed a huge focus was PMG. I think their focus will be to apply PMG as much as possible or in other words, to become a PMG mission. I thought it was a good message. I've noticed that 99% of my questions about anything mission-related have been answered through PMG. I also feel like reading the manual really helps us do what we're supposed to the right way. One can notice those people who don't read the manual from the ones who do.

But it is definitely a transition. I can tell right off the bat that they'll be doing things differently from the Babins. But everyone here will have to accept and support what the Sorensens do because at the end of the day, the church is still the same church and Christ is at the driver's seat.

We had our first rendezvous with Thierry, and it went quite well. He's a very open and respectable guy. He is definitely a truth-seeker and will benefit from receiving the restored gospel. We're very excited to continue teaching him.

We, or better said Elder Ho taught this guy that the Sœurs passed to us who is native of China like him, so they talked for a long time in their native language of Mandarin. The guy seemed super nice and interested from watching them discuss. But after discussing with Elder Ho afterwards he said he's way to philosophical and asks lots of hard questions. It apparently didn't get anywhere we would've liked to. Freak, it's like I'm a bleu all over again.

Hopefully this upcoming week we'll be able to find more consistent amis. This upcoming weekend is La Fête Nationale, so lots of action.

I wish you all a successful week,

Love,

Elder Aburto

Su Majestad Llegó

July 3^rd, 2017

Bonjour,

Another week, another adventure. Another transfer gone, a new one comes. New companion, new vision, new life.

This past week was nice. Wednesday we got our new comps. I'm with Elder Ho now, a man straight outta Hong Kong. He speaks Mandarin, Cantonese & English fluently. He's such a sincere guy. He's 24 years old and a really good guy. I can tell already that we're going to have lots of fun together.

We were able to meet with Paulina & Louis again this week. Paulina is so open and cool. We gave her a BOM in her native tongue of Polish and she was so excited to start reading it. Louis is willing to talk and read, but less open to change. We hope all will go well with them.

We found a new ami named Thierry, like the soccer player. He's an older guy who met with us years ago. We knocked on his door and we had a little talk. He's a very believing Christian Frenchman.  He seems very humble and open. We're excited to go back to see him this week.

We found this other lady named Isabelle. She's a middle aged woman from the Island of La Réunion by Madagascar. She's very funny and talks a lot. She's met with us a long time ago and felt great about seeing us again after a really long time.  She's really sweet. We're probably going o to pass her to the sœurs, but we know she's got lots of potential.

Su majestad llego. The Sorensen are here. I will have the chance to meet them this Thursday in Rennes. I'm looking forward to meeting them and spending these last few months with the new couple. It'll be interesting to see if he makes any changes.

Well, that's all I got to say about the week. I hope y'all are well and prospering.

Soyez prudent.

Fraternellement,

Elder Aburto

Going Chinese

June 26^th, 2017

Greetings,

A new transfer begins. Changes happen. It's always for good. We have transfer day coming up this Wednesday and Elder Marion will leave Brest to the land of promise, Brussels. I will be getting Elder Ho for my penultimate transfer, possibly my last companion. As far as I know, Elder Ho is from Hong Kong and is a convert. I don't know what President was thinking in putting a Hispanic and an Asian together here in Brest, but we're all optimistic about the future.

This past week, we met up with this dude we found on our Finding Day a week ago. His name is Bastien, he's French, young, and actually really open and believing. He accepted the Livre de Mormon happily and committed to start reading it. He really seems like a sincere guy who wants to do what's right.

We finally met with Anina again. She's a very sweet lady. We taught her with our Angolan Frère, Tino. It worked out well. We gave her the whole rétablissement lesson and gave her a BOM reading commitment, which she accepted.

I guess the theme of the week was the Book of Mormon. We had a family home evening, a few rendezvous, and sacrament meeting where a lot of the talks and thoughts were on the power of the Book of Mormon. It's easy to take it for granted, but if we take time to think about it, it's really cool. Everyone can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon; we just have to do our part in reading it.

It's nice to hear the MTC has those new buildings. It should make all the difference for the learning environment for all of the missionaries.

Also, I did the Brest Special on Friday. The Brest Special is a mission famous truc which is a special crepe made by the Aasbo's in the branch.

For my birthday, we went to  a pasta restaurant for lunch. And the sœurs made a birthday cake. Outside of that, it was a normal day.

Well, I hope all is well, and I wish everyone a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Aburto

1997-2017: 20 Years in the Making

June 19th, 2017

Bonjour à tous,

Wow, what a great week that just passed. It seems like once we make it around to June that life just really helps us out and it's all ok.

This year was no exception with LeBron James losing in the Finals... again. Yet maybe almost as good is that Kevin Durant won his first NBA title. What a great story.

This week went awesome, let me show you some highlights:

We had exchanges in Quimper. The elders down there have a car, so it  was real nice. The ville itself is also a decently nice-looking one.  The thing with Brest is maybe I've mentioned before, is that in both  World Wars it got decimated, so it got rebuilt and has more of a  modern-feel to it. Quimper still has the old-fashioned, classic French  feel to it. Nice ville.

A few days ago, we contacted this young Polish chick who was really  nice and willing to meet another time. So we had our first rendezvous  with her and her boyfriend on Saturday. It went so well! Man, we just  had the best feeling walking out of that one. So she, Paulina, is a  practicing Catholic and he, Louis, is a non-practicing French guy and  after meeting us a couple days before, she had looked us up on the  internet and watched a couple of reports that BBC made about LDS  missionaries. They both asked lots of great questions and are very  open. When we explained a little of who we are and the Book of Mormon  and gave them a copy, they gladly accepted. Louis said, "Is that  really all I have to do, just read the book sincerely?" They viewed it  as something very simple. What a tender-mercy. That's the way to  celebrate a birthday, right there.

We went back to the Dominican lady's apartment to give her a Book of  Mormon in Spanish, she took the book but made it clear she was never  going to change from Catholicism. Hopefully she'll come around.

We also got a new branch president here. The senior missionary couple,  the Griffins, are leaving in a week, so they called a member in the branch, Frère Fournis to take charge. We'll be seeing lots of change in the near future with a new mission President, transfers, and the  branch. Hopefully we'll make Brest great again.   

And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for all the support and love. Life  would not be the same without you. I hope you have a good one.

Love,

Elder Aburto

Cómo no te voy a querer

June 12^th, 2017

Hello everyone.

This week was very special. I had my last zone Conference and interviews with the Babins. It was very sad. To me, it'll feel like a completely different mission when we get the American guy in a couple weeks. The Babins reassured us that things will be alright and he work will move on. I gotta say, I love the way President Babin treated us. He treated us like we were all his children and he loved us all so much. He put his whole heart into his calling the past 3 years and has influenced many lives, including mine. I asked him in my interview with him how hard it was for him and he said despite all of the challenges, he didn't view it as a sacrifice on his part, but blessings from the Lord. Pretty cool.

In 2 weeks President Sorensen will come with his wife, five kids and his mother-in-law. They're pretty young and not French, so it'll probably be difficult for them to take over for the Babins. President Babin mentioned this and made us promise him that we will make the Sorensens feel welcomed and at home. I hope all will go well.

It was great to get that last interview with Sœur Babin over with. Because mama's not easy.

I got to spend a day in Lorient on an exchange. It's on the south-central part of Bretagne. It's a port and very nice. The elders apartment is right by the stade de fut where FC Lorient play.

Not a whole lot to report in terms of work this week. But this upcoming week we've got several rendezvous planned so it should be a good one.

Have a wonderful semaine, everyone.

Love,

Elder Aburto

Hispanics in Brest

June 5th, 2017

Greetings,

This week was pretty good. Besides the fact that Real Madrid won the champions league, it was a good week overall.

I got to use my Spanish quite a bit, actually. It was cool because we passed by this one family from the Dominican Republic that Marion found with his previous companion, and they don't really speak French, so we tried passing by a couple of days ago and the lady opened the door and we had a really nice chat. She's die-hard catholic, but will accept a Book of Mormon in Spanish, so we're going back this week to get that to her.

And then also, we visited Manuel and his family again and we had a nice meal. He has two kids and a niece who live with him who are still teenagers and not members. We got to talk a little bit with his son, Eduardo, and he's a really good kid. He plays soccer and likes Barcelona, so we're already on good terms.

Manuel also gave us a referral. He gave us this number of another Peruvian family who's also less-active and we gave them a call and they sounded so happy to hear from us. We fixed a rendezvous for this week. The thing with Manuel and the Peruvian family is that they believe in the gospel, it's just hard for them to integrate themselves in the branch when they don't speak the language very well or don't feel like they fit in with the French people. I love being able to work with them myself because I feel more at home in France when I see other Hispanics.

We did some porting a couple days ago, and this middle-aged dude looked happy to see us, he let us in to talk a little bit. He was a little drunk and high, but seemed more-or-less religious. Haha, we'll see where that goes.

I don't think I've mentioned this, but this transfer is only five weeks. It's President Babin's last transfer, and then next transfer with President Sorensen will be seven weeks. So we'll be seeing a lot of change real soon.

Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..."

Remember who you are.

Love,

Elder Aburto

No More Cloudy Days

May 29^th, 2017

Salut!

Just another email to let you know I'm still alive. Life is still great here in Bretagne. The weather has been very unpredictable lately with each day bringing a blazing hot sun, or a downpour of rain. And when it rains, it pours! Hopefully the sun comes to stay this summer.

This week frankly flew by really fast. I think one big part of it was that we took P-day on Tuesday and we spent most of our day Saturday traveling. Regardless, we had some nice things happen nonetheless, like...

We got to see our new ami, Anina, again and go further into the Livre de Mormon. We invited her to come to church and she came! She was only able to stay for sacrament meeting but she loved it and said she wants to come back next week.

We got back in touch with Jeremie and finally had a rendezvous with him. After a little while of not seeing him, we decided to read a passage in the scriptures with him. It went well. He was able to reflect and look inward and really see what he needs to change to improve his life. He seems more sincere and hope he will make those steps to grow and gain a testimony.

We had a great second lesson with Oriane. We went over part of the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. She asked great questions and wants to keep learning more. We passed her to the Sœurs, so we're not going to be teaching her anymore. She's got some nice potential...

We also finally got in contact with a part-member family from Perú. The dad is a member and less-active and most of his kids aren't members. We got in the door and we were able to get to know him a little bit. His name's Manuel. He seems like a really serious guy, but he has a good sense of humor. He invited us over to go eat Peruvian food this week. It should be a good time.

Well, that's all, folks. Thanks so much for all the love and support and for living good lives. It was Mother's Day in France yesterday, so Happy French Mothers Day!!

Je t'aime,

Elder Aburto