Week of April 12-19, 2015

     We arrived in Vitoria yesterday, Saturday, April 17th, around noon Brasil time.  The city of Vitória is beautiful.  The view flying in from the airport was amazing as you can see from the picture below.  The weather feels very much like Houston.  President Young and Sister Young met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel where we will stay while we are prepared for our assignment.  Since we flew through Friday night, we were glad to have Saturday afternoon and evening to stretch out a little and walk.  We have a beautiful view of the coast and we can see the mission home from our window.  We stretched out for an hour or so and then put on our work out clothes (with our missionary name tags) and walked down to the beach.  It is beautiful and it is lighted which was good since sunset is around 5:30pm (it’s Fall here).  We had lunch/dinner at a Subway across from the hotel and found “Magnum” ice cream bars (something we were introduced to in Israel) for our after-dinner/walk treat.   Since Winter is around the corner, the beach area was not very crowded at 5:30pm but it appeared things were just getting started for the night.  They had numerous sand volleyball courts as well as sand soccer fields along the beach.  With the sun going down and a nice breeze it really was beautiful.  People here keep telling us that Vitória is one of the prettiest cities in Brasil.  We did note from the airplane that it looks newer than Rio and is very clean.  I would have to say our first day here was great!

Vitória from the air.

    

     Today (Sunday) President and Sister Young took us to the Cariacica Stake (six wards) conference, which is within greater Vitória metropolitan area.  Elder Marcos A. Aidukaitis, a native Brazilian, of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Second Counselor in the Brazil Area Presidency was presiding.  The members of the Stake Presidency, President Young and Elder Aidukaitis all spoke.  I could understand President Young the best, probably because he still speaks a little slower Portuguese with an American accent.  However, with Jeff doing a little translation in my ear, I was able to understand most of Elder Aidukaitis’ talk.  His major themes were:  
     1.   Every young man should serve a mission.  He shared his personal experience of sacrifice to serve as a full-time missionary as he lost his girlfriend and his scholarship.  However, he ultimately met and married a very special girl and received an even better opportunity to study Mechanical Engineering because of his missionary service;
     2.   It is important that we judge others as we would like to be judged.  Unity comes from being charitable and generous in our assessments of others.
     3.   Obedience to the law of tithing brings material blessings, but even more important are the spiritual blessings that come from sacrifice.
It was an excellent meeting and we enjoyed the enthusiastic singing of the hymns by the Brazilian members.  
     After Stake conference, President Young had a couple of missionary interviews so we visited with the members and the missionaries serving in the Stake.  It was interesting to sit on the stand with President and Sister Young and one of the things that caught my eye was that the families are smaller.  President Young had mentioned this to us before the meeting and I could see that to be true as we looked out over the congregation.  Elder Aidukaitis has five children which is a large family here.  The members and missionaries were kind and solicitous of us.  

Vitória Bay during the day from our hotel.

     Vitória bay at night from our hotel. The lights in back are the sidewalk along the beach.    

          After Stake conference were went to the mission home for lunch and visited with President and Sister Young about the mission, our families, our assignment, and their experiences since they arrived last July.  Since we are the first senior couple in this mission, they seem genuinely grateful that we are here.  We have been assigned to support the Nanuque zone which is in the northern-most part of the mission, about a 6½ hour (300 mile) drive from Vitória.  There are currently two mission Districts with 8 branches there, which means the mission president not only has responsibility for the missionaries, but ecclesiastical responsibility for the members and therefore does temple recommend interviews, calls District and Branch leaders, etc. which is quite a time consuming responsibility.  President Young had an interview with one of his missionaries that was going home recently who had served in Teófilo Ontoni and when told we would be serving in this area, the Elder openly wept.  We hope to help increase the activity, unity and strength of the Church in the area.  It sounds a little intimidating, but we will do what we can to love and support both the leaders, members and missionaries to move the work forward.  
     By the way the mission home/President’s apartment is beautiful and sits right on the coast with an amazing view of the bay.  You can see the beachfront and the ships heading into the Port of Vitória.  President and Sister Young say they feel a little spoiled with the view, but in reality, they are so busy, they don’t have much time there.  Thus, they enjoy showing it to the missionaries when they arrive in the mission and when they leave to go home. 
     We have included a copy of the mission goals intended to help establish a culture of Christ-like attributes in the mission.  The poster was drawn by one of the artistically talented Sister missionaries and is posted in each missionary apartment.  The goals are Amor (love), Obediéncia (obedience), Gratidão (gratitude) and Unidade (Unity).

Poster of the Vitória Mission Goals

     One of the topics presented at the MTC was the miraculous growth taking place in Africa with new member retention as high as 86%.  They attribute that to a specific focus on teaching near the meetinghouses since transportation to attend church meetings is a significant challenge for many new members.  By first building up centers of strength near the existing chapels, they are later able to extend proselyting in further out areas without creating financial problems for the members.  We saw this firsthand today when one of the wards had to rent a bus to bring members who wanted to attend Stake conference.  Without that assistance, the transportation expense would result make it impossible for many to attend the meeting.  The Brazil Area Presidency is emphasizing financial self-sufficiency for the Church here in Brazil and this has redirected missionary efforts to focus on building centers of strength near existing meetinghouses.  We are grateful for that vision and guidance. 
      We have been told that the drive from Vitoria to Teófilo Otoni is very beautiful as it winds through the hills that rise to 1100 feet above sea level.  We’ve been advised that it is likely we’ll have a car since our area is so large and so far from the mission office.  The mission only has two cars right now, so adding another vehicle is significant.   We may initially take the second vehicle until they get a third one.  It is a nice 2012 GMC Zafira (van), but Sister Young seems happy for us to take it so she doesn’t have to drive it.  We will keep you posted on that.  After our training in the MTC on housing, which we shared with President Young, the mission is going to order the list of furniture and other items that the church specifies for senior housing and then we’ll pay a monthly rental fee (which over the two years should cover the cost of furnishing the apartment) along with a monthly fee for home rental and utilities.  That will simplify things both now and when we go home.  We feel very blessed and it just keeps getting better!
      President Young introduced the missionaries to “Minha Familia” (My Family) in January nd they are starting to see some great things from the missionaries as they spend an extra hour on preparation day to search for and connect with their own families.   Probably a good idea for all of us.

Avante para a Vitória,  

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw

Week of April 6-11, 2015

“Oi” ("hello" in Portuguese) from the Provo MTC.  We have had a wonderful week!  Before we entered the MTC, we enjoyed being in downtown Salt Lake for General Conference.  We stayed at the City Creek Marriott, which as you might guess, many members of the Church stay as guests during conference.  It was interesting because they set up a large room with round tables for the concierge breakfast and we ate every morning with several members of the Seventy and their wives. We had tickets to the Saturday morning, Priesthood (Jeff) and Sunday morning sessions.

  President Matthew Bell, our new Bartlesville stake president, and his family came for General Conference, so we had arranged to meet him in a private room at the north visitor center on temple square following the Sunday morning session to be set apart as missionaries.  We learned that President Bell grew up in Orange Texas (where we interviewed for a job at a DuPont ethylene plant in 1980) in the Methodist church and joined the church in 1994.  They have lived in Claremore for the past eight years and were therefore members of the Tulsa East Stake This was his first opportunity to set apart a senior missionary couple and so it was a memorable experience for all.

Sunday, April 5, 2015 on Temple Square

Since this is my first time as a missionary, I found it interesting that we were set apart under the direction and keys of authority delegated by President Thomas S. Monson.  The first counsel given was to always bear testimony and share our witness of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, both its redeeming power and its enabling power. Jeff and I were reminded that there would be difficult experiences associated with this call and we would need to rely on the Spirit for direction and inspiration.  President Bell referenced President Uchtdorf’s concluding talk in the Sunday morning session about the Savior’s grace unlocking the gates and opening the windows of heaven.  It was powerful counsel and a wonderful blessing that will guide us in our missionary service.  President Bell also spoke of the opportunity that I would have to be a mother to the young missionaries serving in our mission areas.  Since our assignment will be about a 3-hour drive north of the mission home, we’re sure to have that opportunity.  The promise was that as we loved these young missionaries and relied on the Spirit for direction, these interactions would result in eternal friendships that would bring us joy in the years to come. 

The final two blessing were one of health (I think Ryan must have said something to President Bell about my health issues) and for our family.  After dealing with the pain in my right side for the past month, despite having the kidney stone removed, both Jeff and I have been a little concerned.  I was promised that within days of starting this work “it would be as if it was never there”.  I know that the Lord can heal and I am grateful for the promise from his servant that He would heal me. I am doing so much better and although there is still just a little residual pain on the right-side, I have been able to go all day without any problem.   We were also promised that our family would be blessed while we are away.  We have never doubted that accepting the call to serve from President Monson would bless our family, but it was very comforting to hear it specifically mentioned at this time.  (At our first meeting in the MTC the presidency and their wives shared several of their own personal family experiences reaffirming that the families of those who serve are blessed in very special ways.)

We had a very sweet experience as we were leaving the City Creek Marriott for the MTC on Monday morning with suitcases in hand.  We stepped off the elevator in the lobby and there stood Elder and Sister Southward.  How appropriate that our final farewell and best wishes came from the Southwards.  They had been in Salt Lake all week for meetings and were just heading over to the temple for an endowment session before flying back to Oklahoma Monday afternoon.  The Southward’s are such great people and a reminder of all that is good in Oklahoma.  Elder Southward was the stake president that called Jeff to be a bishop (the first time) 27 years ago and more recently, to be his executive secretary as he has served as the Area Seventy for Oklahoma, west Arkansas and southwest Missouri.  We have served with Sister Southward in the Oklahoma City temple on Saturday’s the past couple of years and she has such a way of making your feel important, her warm embrace was a nice send off.  Our intermittent time in Oklahoma over the past 34 years has been very good.

We arrived at the MTC on Monday, April 6, 2015 around 9:30am and were impressed at how well-organized they were.  We were given a map and a list of tasks to complete with very clear instructions.  We drove the car to the unloading dock at the MTC dormitory  and four young Elders were there to greet us and help carry our suitcases to our room.   They were there to learn Italian and two are going to Austin’s mission in Milan next week.  We told them to be sure and tell him hi from us if they saw him.   Next, we picked up our package of teaching materials at the MTC bookstore and finally we settled our expenses for 11 days at the MTC (which was about half what it cost for our 3 nights at the Marriott in Salt Lake).  The accommodations are excellent and our MTC room is a little larger and nicer than the Marriott, and the food has been excellent.

It has been an amazing week here at the MTC.  They know how to train, motivate and inspire and they do it WELL!!  There were 98 senior missionaries who checked in on Monday and during training and meals, we have met most of them.  It is a small world in the Church.  One of the first senior missionaries we saw was Sister Cornia who was a member of our ward when we lived in Casper.  Her husband had been in the Stake Presidency but has since passed away.  We first reconnected with Sister Cornia last November when she was part of our Israel tour group.  At that time, we had our call, but she was just getting ready to submit her papers.  So it was quite a coincidence we entered the MTC on the same day.  We also met Elder Vern and Sister Priscilla Hoskin from Blackfoot Idaho.  She taught school with  Rayde (my brother-in-law), he is Lamar Hoskin's brother who was a bishop in the Bartlesville 2^nd ward, their son Matt and his family lived in our ward when Jeff was bishop, and we met one of their other sons in Chelsea’s ward in Pittsburgh when we were there this past January.  

MTC District (l to r) Edmunds, Burkinshaws, Swallow, Yazzie, Shumways and Lynns.   

Our district was us and three other couples with Jeff serving as the district leader (B comes before E, L or S in the alphabet).  Our instructors were Sister Nichelle Yazzie from Arizona and Brother Taylor Swallow from Salt Lake.  Elder Del and Sister Marsha Shumway from Orem are serving their 3^rd mission to McAllen, Texas Spanish-speaking MLS (Member and Leaders Support); Elder Ken and Sister Rienna Lynn from Reno, Nevada are serving an MLS mission to Philadelphia, PA; and Elder Steve and Sister Liz Edmunds from Woodlands, UT (near Park City) are serving in the Western European Area Office in land management. Sister Edmunds is the Food Nanny on the BYU channel (see http://www.byutv.org/show/4f383f98-6b31-4661-a832-e73a27a4d6ab/the-food-nanny).  The Edmunds are also neighbors with the Clark's who use to live in Tulsa.  They were all great and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  We did a lot of role-playing and got to know each other pretty well.

On Tuesday evening, we attended an MTC Devotional with Elder Garrit W. Gong, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and the Asia Area President.  The Asia Area including China and India have about half the world’s population (3.5 billion people).  He spoke about how to teach the gospel to non-Christians since that is the challenge for his area.  See the following chart.

Elder Gong said that while many of the non-Christian converts don’t understand much of what the missionaries taught them, they did feel the Spirit and therefore wanted to do what the missionaries asked them to do – quite an interesting observation.  Helping them identify the Spirit in their lives (something they would recognize from their pre-mortal experience) was a key role for the missionaries.

We also watched a devotional presented by Elder Bednar at the MTC on Christmas 2011 about developing the Character of Christ.  While we didn’t have a transcript of the devotional, we did find that Elder Bednar presented a similar talk at BYU-Idaho in 2002, worth looking up and reviewing.  Elder Bednar said, “If we turn outward as missionaries as Christ did in love, compassion and service it will not be about us.”

For our P-Day on Saturday, we took Jeff's Mom for breakfast at Kneaders and then to see “Cinderella” followed by a manicure for grandma.  We had dinner that evening with Aunt Robyn at Café Rio in Provo.  She has met with her Bishop and is working towards going to the temple sometime this Fall, we are so excited for her.  Once Robyn has been sealed Jeff's family will be a whole unit for eternity.

For church today, we attended the international branch at the MTC, where there are many young missionaries who are preparing to go to Mongolia, including a couple of young women from Brazil.

This week we’ll be doing Mission Office training even though our Mission President has changed our assignment to work in the city of Teofilo Otóni where there is a small mission district.  They have found us a home to rent but we’ll have to furnish it with furniture and appliances.  It sounds like a great opportunity to serve.

We will be leaving for Brazil on Friday afternoon, April 17 arriving on Saturday afternoon.  Our itinerary is as follows:  SLC to Atlanta to Rio de Janeiro to Vitória.  We presume we’ll be at the mission home for a few days where we’ll get our phones switched to a Brazilian cell phone plan and we’ll confer with President and Sister Young.  Then we’ll drive north to Teofilo Otóni.
Avante para a Vitória!!  (D&C 128:22)
Elder and Sister Burkinshaw