Le Temple

April 24th, 2017

Bonjour,

This was a great week.

We had the great privilege of visiting the Paris France Temple in Le Chesnay. It's absolutely incredible. The grounds aren't very big put the church used it the the best of its ability. It's a smaller temple, but it is very special. One of the things that make it unique is the stained glass windows. All of the windows of the temple have the stained glass, it has a nice visitor’s center with a Christus statue outside in the gardens. It was so nice to walk inside and to feel the spirit of the temple. It's very meaningful for all the members here, because 20 years ago, no one thought they could see a temple be built in France. It's great to be apart of this historic moment for the church here.

As far as Brest goes...

We had a nice rendezvous with our ami, Jeremy. He's like a 30 year-old French guy. He speaks good English, so we teach him with the Griffins. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and it went great. He has some problems with drinking coffee, but he committed to start living it. He has a lot of faith and we're so happy for his desire to do what's right. We hope to keep him progressing.

We did a lot of finding again. But we were able to fix some rendezvous with a couple of those people we met on the street, so we'll see how serious they are by the end of this week.  We did also get let into a house while porting. This really nice Hindu lady let us in and we had a nice brief discussion. It was pretty cool.

Well, that's all for this week. I hope everyone does well and may success follow all of the faithful.

Love,

Elder Aburto

La Bretagne

April 17th, 2017

Bonjour,

It's been a great first week here in Bretagne. I heard a lot about this place before coming here. Many missionaries grow attached to this place and find it hard to leave. Well, I'm finally here, and it's definitely living up to the hype. It's a really nice region. Everything is really green. 

The ville is pretty decent. It's about 150,00 big. So it's a lot bigger than my last area. Walking around the ville, one can tell this place got decimated in the war and a lot of new buildings got reconstructed in place of the old ones. The branch is about the same size as St-Omer's so we had like 30 people come to sacrament meeting yesterday. The branch president is a senior couple missionary, Elder Griffin, from Lehi. My new companion, Elder Marion, is awesome. He's from Colorado and has been out for about 9 months. He's a stud missionary and I'm excited to be with him for the next little while. 

Something that I'm tired of hearing is that missionary work is hard here. I heard that missionary work is hard in Brest before I came over here, but frankly, is it easy anywhere? I feel like if missionary work were super easy entonces no tendría chiste. But we're here. So we're just going to do our best to make a difference in this secteur. We have a few Amis that we feel are pretty close to baptism, but just need a little time and help to get there. 

En fait, we are going to the temple this Friday. We'll have a special tour for our mission the couple days just before the open house begins on the 22 of April.  At long last, after a year and a half of living here, I'll finally get to see the Temple. 

As far as the NBA is, I feel like the Clippers are turning into the Arsenal of the NBA; big names, big city, commercials and commercials, a couple good games here and couple there, but at the end of the day they don't do anything. I feel with a healthy Rudy Gobert, the Jazz should be able to beat them. Beat LA! Beat LA! 

Well, enough of this... Have a great week, mes potes!

Love,

Elder Aburto

À Brest!

April 10th, 2017

Hey so the repertoire came out and...

I'm getting transferred to Brest! In Bretagne. I've heard the world about the place and I'm really excited. I hear the branch is really small. Mom, remember your friend from work, Claire? She told me over the phone that she had some friends in Bretagne that she'd like me to contact if is was ever over there. So, you can ask her about that. 

It's always bittersweet to leave villes. This place is unique. It's probably the smallest area out here and the people up are so warm and friendly, it'll definitely a change from up north to the west. It's always exciting, though. Everyone talks about how great the region of Bretagne is, and apparently it rains everyday there, too. 

The great thing about life is that you never have to say goodbye. Even if we never see someone again in this life, we'll see them again hereafter. It's something the mission's changed about me, because before I used to hate saying goodbye, but now it's no big deal. I guess that's another thing that comes from the prince of peace. 

We had a district finding day this last Friday and we were able to find a couple of new people for Langley and his new comp to teach. We understand work here in Europe is different, but I feel that if missionaries just make and effort to improve the area they're working in, they're being successful quand-même. 

Mami's name is getting more famous. A few members here asked me if I was related to her. Oh yeah, President Eyring has a grandson serving in this mission, too, so don't forget to mention that to him the next time you see him. 

It's the season of change. Flowers come out. New Presidents making changes. New callings. New villes. New beginnings. 

Have an amazing week.

Love, 

Elder Aburto

What a Blessing

April 3rd, 2017

Hello tout le monde,

It's been good living here in the last little while.

We haven't really been able to see many of our Amis this week, but we did have a great rendezvous with LeBrun and Elodie. We taught the first part of the Plan du Salut. I love sitting in rendezvous with Lebrun because he understands so well and I don't feel like we have to make a strong effort to try to make him understand, because he just gets it. The spirit is always really present in the room whenever we go over. It's awesome to get to see them see the blessings of the gospel in their lives.

We went to Annie's a few days ago, and she still wants to see us it's just her boyfriend who was upset with us that one day. But she's not going to let that keep us from teaching her. We hope that by counselling together, they can both agree on taking the discussions from us, not just Annie.

...And just like that Conference came around and left again. It was the last General Conference I'll have as a missionary and I've got to say it was great. It was very uplifting and edifying and motivating. Some of my favourite talks were Elder Rasband's about following the Spirit, Elder Bednar's about being called to serve, and others.

May we all enjoy the wonderful gospel in our lives and have a great week.

Love,

Elder Aburto

2nd Counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency?

Wow. Yeah, mom is a GA, that's crazy. It's interesting because I felt it coming. After you guys mentioned last week that Sœur Burton would get released I just felt like mami would get called. It's interesting too because I think Elder Hein could feel it as well as he asked me about it the day before. I could feel that President Uchdorf was going to read off mami's name and he did. I was expecting it so I wasn't really in shock. I know God makes his decisions precisely and carefully and doesn't just do things randomly.

I know mom will do great as 2nd Counselor in the General Relief Society and yes you do speak good enough English. Just as Zidane returned to Real Madrid, mami returns to Salt Lake in a new position.

And she's from la cantera as well.

Viva Nicaragua!

Viva Nicaragua!

Viva Nicaragua!

Love,

Elder Aburto

"Por mi raza, hablará el espíritu." –UNAM