January 3, 2017

Hi Everyone,

All great things come to an end. This is my last letter as a full time missionary and I can't really believe it. I would love to just sit here and write down everything I've seen and learned but 1) I wouldn't have time, and 2) I don't think I could ever put it into words.

I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I have come to know Him here in Guatemala and I will just continue to keep coming to know Him for the rest of my life. I will be taking off the missionary badge but it will forever remain engraved upon my heart and I will never be the same. I have walked the road to Damascus. I have been hit on my back a hundred times here in the mission and only here I could come to know Christ more fully. Only when we are pushed to our extremity are we able to know Deity. The mission was a process of stretching and growing. It was a process of losing myself, getting rid of the mirror in front of my face and replacing it with a window to see others.

Matthew-10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Getting lost in the Lord's work has been the greatest thing I have ever done. He has made me into something so much greater than what I could have made myself into. He is the great Carpenter who is always ready to carve and polish us into something beautiful. 

I love the mission. I have loved spending days on the grind diligently looking for people to teach. I have loved having the Holy Ghost guide us to someone who needs the Gospel. I have loved teaching and feeling the Holy Ghost testify of my words. I have loved the look in an investigators eyes when he is feeling the power of the Spirit. I have loved seeing them change their lives 180% degrees. I have loved seeing them dressed in all white and the joy in their eyes after they feel forgiveness, and they feel clean. I love the mission. Its the best thing that I have ever done. It wasn't a sacrifice, or a duty, it was a privilege. I feel so blessed to have served. The Atonement has changed me. 

Thanks for all the support that you all have given me. I love you all so much. It will be good to be able to see you all. 

I'll be giving my 100% until 4pm Saturday. 

Elder Buhrley

December 27, 2016

Hi Everyone!

Christmas was great! Hope everyone had a great Christmas! It was fun talking to the fam even though I know that in a time that seems to be approaching faster and faster I will be able to see them all in person! 

Well Elder Griffen and I are still giving everything that we have got! It just feels good to give everything that you have in the work of the Lord. We are seeing many miracles every day. San Vicente Pacaya has been the craziest area that I have been in! Elder Griffen and I are having a blast! The people that we are teaching are so great! 

I have a week in a half left. I am not counting down the days waiting to go home, but counting down the days to make sure I get the most out of every last second iv got here. I will be giving my all until the last whistle is blown. God wants finishers and I will finish the job that He has sent me here to do. I will finish with the measure of my creation.  

I love you guys! Thanks for all the support! 

Elder Buhrley

pics- I got to go back to Palin and say goodbye to some of my best buds!

December 21, 2106

Hey!

San Vicente Pacaya is so awesome! Elder Griffen is a stud! We are loving it here!

We had the funnest activity for Christmas in our little one room church house! It was awesome and we had a lot of investigators there and they loved it! Christmas is such a special time of year. 

Elder Griffen and I had a companionship study the other days just thinking about the questions, "What is the price to pay to baptize here in San Vicente?" We were just looking for revelation. We received a lot of answers and we are changing a lot of things and seeing great results but the biggest thing that we said was that we are not going to say a single negative thing. Not one negative word is going to come out of our mouth. We are not going to let negativity enter. We have seen a huge difference by doing this! We are not negative people, I would consider us really positive thinkers but just by getting rid of negative thoughts and comments we are seeing miracles! We are pushing ourselves harder than ever and we are enjoying every second of the mission! 

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! 25 years! Happy Anniversary Grandpa and Grandma Allred! 50 years! That's incredible! The family is such a huge part in the Plan of Salvation! God sent us here in families for a reason and I truly believe that we all chose what family we are to be a part of before this life. Without the family God's great plan would be frustrated. What a great blessing to be here testifying and teaching these people about how their perfectly imperfect families can be together forever. Elder Griffen and I are basically only focusing on families right now so I have put a lot of thought into the importance of the family. The family is the divine Godly organization where God has placed us so that everything else in His gospel can be put into practice. The best place to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in the home. Elder Griffen and I are seeing big changes that these families have been making by putting the Gospel into play in their home. There is no greater feeling! All we need to do now is baptize them! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! In all of your gift opening this Christmas make sure to open the greatest gift in your life which is the Atonement of Jesus Christ! Remember the greatest gift that this world has even been given! Its a personally wrapped gift that is always waiting to be opened! 

I love you guys! Thanks for all the support! Cant wait to see you fam this Sunday!

Elder Buhrley 

December 13, 2016

Hi All,

This week has been so crazy! San Vicente Pacaya is easily the craziest area I have ever been! We have 1 member and she is borderline crazy!  Here in San Vicente just about all are Catholics. They are Catholics by tradition. They do everything because that's the way that their parents and grandparents did it. Trying to invite them to change is just a concept that makes no sense to them. They are so closed off, blind, and hard hearted. It's been a ton of fun though because we have been seeing a lot of miracles!! We are really getting good at using the gift of discernment and parting the sheep from the goats!

The biggest miracle that we had this last week was with an investigator named Enrique. Elder Griffen and I fasted to find a family to baptize and during this fast we went to go and knock some doors (not much more to do when you are opening an area and there is only 1 member in your area). We wern't having much success until we saw a lady in front of her house so we started talking and she went inside of her house to get her husband. Her husband came outside and let us in with a warm welcome. He said that he had been waiting for us. Apparently he talked to missionaries last week and gave them his dats and everything and he was excited to see us in his house. He went on to tell us that he is "Catholic" but doesn't want to be. He said that he didn't feel good there. We shared the first lesson and he was all ears. The second visit we passed by and he read the whole pamphlet after we left his house that night and then after that he couldn't sleep for many hours that night. He said he couldn't get all of the thoughts out of his mind. He felt something that he had never felt and he said that it was leaving him uneasy to sleep. In this lesson Elder Griffin and I were able to testify about the Holy Ghost and then teach him about the Book of Mormon. He is pumped to read that book! He and his wife are both really excited to come to church this Sunday! We have got to get them married and baptized which will be a blast! I love weddings! haha that will be no problem!

One thing that President Markham has taught me is that Satan doesn't need to make us kill someone in order to "win". He doesn't need a missionary to go and break the law of chastity in order to "win". All he needs to do is distract us. If he can distract us from our overall purpose, he has won. If he can get a missionary to think about his house all the time, he has won. Or if he can get a missionary to think about being friends with everyone instead of inviting them to come to Christ, he has won. Now with seeing all of these churches in Guatemala, and there are hundreds in every city, I feel that saying to be completely true. Satan doesn't need to make us kill, he just needs to distract us and that is sufficient. 

I testify that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true and living church on the earth today. I testify that it is the Kingdom of God here on earth. I testify that through and only through this Church we can meet the measure of our creation. I share the testimony of Nephi when he stated that there are only two churches:  the Church of the Lamb and the church of the devil. Satan is having success here in Guatemala distracting and luring many of the people in false traditions and worldly attractions. Elder Griffen and I will be at work trying to save every last one of them that we can! It's a great work to be done!

I love my savior Jesus Christ. I love representing Him and helping people come unto to him.

It's not a sacrifice, but the biggest privilege that I have ever been given. :)

Love you guys! 

Elder Buhrley

December 7, 2016

Hey everybody!

I am so excited to be in our new area!!! It's so awesome! We are going to be able to talk to people who have never heard of Mormons! haha. There are two people who have gone to the temple here in our area... Elder Griffen and myself! haha We are going to see so many miracles and I am so excited for it! I just hope that Elder Griffen has the same experience in his training that I had in mine. I love my trainer, Elder Hintze, because he really helped me know Christ, and I will never be the same. I am forever grateful for him for that and I hope to have the impact on my new hijo Elder Griffen! :)

I had a ton of fun with Elder Donoso in just the one week that I was in Eterna Primavera! We worked our butts off and it was a blast! We used faith to see miracles! President told me that he was sending me there to just find a ton of people for Elder Donoso and his future companion. We did it! We had 13 in church and I felt good leaving that area better than I found it!

I love Christmas and Thanksgiving! What a great blessing it is to be in the mission at this time of the year. They don't really celebrate these holidays here very well but it's all good! ha It just feels good to be here and show by word and by act that I am thankful for my Savior and His life by serving Him. There is no better time of the year to be a missionary:)

One thing that I have been seeing a lot in my studies and with my investigators is the relationship between fear and faith. Faith and fear and completely opposites and cannot exist together. You either have faith or fear.

2 Tim 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit offear; but of power, and of love, and of a soundmind."

Reading the story of Peter walking on water is also a great example of this truth.

Matt 14: 

 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he wasafraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord,save me.

 31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand,and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of littlefaith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Also looking at the parable of the sewers in Matthew 25 and how Jesus responds to the worker who doubled his talents and the worker who hid his talent. 

 23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good andfaithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a fewthings, I will make thee ruler over many things: enterthou into the joy of thy lord.

 24 Then he which had received the one talent cameand said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hardman, reaping where thou hast not sown, andgathering where thou hast not strawed:

 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent inthe earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

 26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thouwicked and slothful servant.

As followers of Jesus Christ we cannot have fear, for perfect love casteth out all fear. Don't be afraid. When we live with fear, we are debilitated and weakened. Satan's greatest tool is fear. When we live according to our faith we are empowered from on high. Don't live your life with your fears, live with your faith and God will do wonders for you. 

I love you guys! Thanks for everything! 

Elder Buhrley

November 29, 2016

November 29, 2016

Hey everyone!

This last week was a blast! We had a wedding and 6 baptisms! 

Rene and Iris got married! It was the best! They both started crying and they were sooo happy! After their wedding Iris got baptized! Rene was baptized when he was young but has been inactive for years. They are soo happy! They asked if I could come down in one year to their temple sealing.. I guess we will just have to see right? ha 

We baptized Anita and the kids of the Familia Barahona! They are all so awesome! I felt really bad for Mario and Ivón (the parents) because they cant get baptized because Ivón is married to someone else and they are still waiting on the long divorce process. I love those guys so much. Mario and Ivón asked us if they were to be separated they could get baptized. We told them no because Christ doesn't want a family to be broken up but it was so humbling to see what they were willing to do to be baptized. I love those guys so much! Anita is a friend of some members and she is soo great! She lost her job because her boss said if she got baptized she couldn't work over there anymore but she had enough faith to tell her boss she didn't care and got baptized anyway! It was a special weekend. 

I got changed! I am now in La Eterna Primavera (Forever Spring). I am with Elder Donoso and I am finishing his last week of his training. I got here yesterday but I am only going to be here for a week because this next week I will be opening an area! I will be working in a place where missionaries have never step foot!! I will be training a brand new missionary and we are going to have a blast!

I testify that Jesus Christ lives. His atonement is infinite. I know that God loves every singe one of us. I read something the other day by Bruce R McConkie and he said "Revelation is the building block of faith." As we receive revelation in our lives we are growing our faith. We are coming to know our Father in heaven. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. The most powerful book on this planet. If it wasn't for that book I wouldn't be here on my mission. It has taught me as no other book has been able to teach me that Christ lives and what I need to do in order to know Him. The Book of Mormon teaches us the mysteries of God. Its a book of revelations and every time you read it I promise you that you will grow your faith in Christ. 

I love you guys! Thanks for all the support! 

Elder Buhrley