Missionaries from the
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burton ward
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Missionary Mail!
Mail from Elder Sam Gonzalez:
Bolivia La Paz Mission
1/6/26
Its been a minute, my fault y'all. A whole lot has happened since november. We had transfers again and I'm still here in Munaypata with the same comp. Christmas was alright, we had an activity as a mission again like last year, then ya. Also had a ward then a stake activity that we ran around doing. It was a lot of fun but it felt like we had to be everywhere all at the same time. I also tried the coca leaf 🍃 😄
New years was good, we ate pizza, grapes, drank tereré, wore red underwear, and watched fireworks. A member gave us the underwear bc a tradición here, if you wear yellow underwear you'll have a prosperous year, if you wear red youll find love, if you wear white youll have peace. The member gave me red because im finishing the mission this year and he says I gotta get on that, he gave my comp white bc he's not allowed to find love yet, he'll be on the mission this whole year.
We had a zone vs zone, 11 a side soccer match which was awesome. Its been so long since I played on a big field and I loved it even tho I was kinda rusty (sent a volley about 15 feet from the goal all the way out to a throw in). We also helped a member in our ward to design and make the jerseys for our zone and other, they were pretty cool, check out the fotos (above).
We had a couple baptisms last month and hopefully have a couple more here soon. We have some great people progressing and the area has a lot of potential. The members sometimes slack a little but we are trying to turn things around.
That's all I got for you guys for now, ill try and get another email out before next year.
Take care, trust in God, and I'll catch y'all later. 🫡
Elder Gonzalez
Mail from Sister Mary Treu:
Dallas Texas South Mission
1/5/26
Hello my wonderful family and friends!! Happy New Year!! That's right, we've finally made it into 2026! There's lots I'm looking forward to this year, but a crazy item on my list is that this is the year I come home!? But no need to worry, I still have some time; July is still a good distance away :)
There's been a lot happening in the Texas Dallas South Mission! As a mission leadership council, we've received revelation from our mission president on how we can continue to drive the work forward. One big focus weve been seeing is a special focus on our covenants.
I've been loving what we've been reading in Come Follow Me about being a covenant people in the Old Testament. A scripture that particularly stood out to me in this week's section was Exodus 19:5. I especially love the vocabulary it uses when describing the Lord's covenant people as a "peculiar treasure". In ancient times, the word "peculiar" means "treasured possession" or "special treasure" . How cool is that!? For God, a being with infinite knowledge and ability, sees us as a treasured possession. To me, that speaks volumes of the importance of our covenants and also the nature of God's character.
As Elder David A. Bednar said, "Covenants are the framework for our mortal probation and the foundation for our eternal happiness."
I'm excited to continue learning about our covenants in the Old Testament, and I would invite you all to take it upon yourselves to reflect and consider,
"What does it mean to ME to be a covenant keeper?"
When we make covenants with God, not only are we bound closer to Him, but we have an additional resource to help us endure this life to its end. I think of it as calling down heavenly tools that we carry in our spiritual first aid kit!
As we grow in life, so do the challenges. And God does not want us to journey out into the labyrinth of life without the proper resources to be at our aid.
On my mission, I have with me quite the first aid kit. And sometimes I wonder, "Is this thing really worth carrying around with me?" As a missionary, room in my suitcase is very valuable. So, you can imagine the conflict I might face with myself when wondering if the extra weight is truly worth it.
It is not every day that I face serious burns that require ointment and bandages, but when a companion burned her whole hand on a hot iron, I was prepared.
It is not every hour that I'm getting cuts or wounds, but when an unsuspecting thorn bush came across my path, resulting in many band-aids being applied, I was prepared.
When sickness came over me, and I could hardly move due to pain. The medicine that I carried, allowed me to be nursed back to health. Though the sickness came without warning, I was prepared.
Friends and family, do we think of our covenants as just another weight to carry? Are they simply burdens we dread? I would encourage those who have ventured on this train of thought to pause for a moment and recognize again, rediscover even, what your covenants protect, prepare, and guide you to and from. Do we not pray daily for the help of God in our lives?
I suggest that we do not allow ourselves to throw away our Heavenly Father's tools. But rather, look forward in confidence, knowing that you are prepared for whatever happens next.
As Doctrine and Covenants 78:18 says,
"And if you are prepared ye shall not fear."
Or in other words, covanants = courage.
Let's not forget the blessings of our covenants we make with our Heavenly Father. Let's move forward with our gifted courage, knowing that we are treasured possessions of the Lord. We are so very precious to him. He would not leave such souls of great worth unprotected or unprepared. We are equipped with all that is nessasary to navigate this journey.
All my love
Sister Mary Treu
Mail from Elder Noah Larsen:
Nicaragua Managua North Mission
1/26/26
Yoo what's up yall. Not gonna lie, I'm running out of content. Everything is starting to just be normal for me. Just the garbage everywhere burning. Getting yelled at left and right by drunks. The usual.
But we had to go to Managua on thursday. We had to wake up at 2:00am to get to the extraction point at some gas station like a mile away. When we got there it was like 3:30am in the fetching morning. Bought some snacks and sat on the curb waiting for the bus. Then some lady comes over and apparently it was "her curb." I guess she lived there or something. And then started begging us to buy her a coffee. Lady, it's THREE AM. Go to bed. The bus finally came and I spent the next 4 hours scrunched up in the pocket where the door opens in the bus because there were more missionaries than seats. Do not recommend.
There's this animal feed store thats just out of our area. So every time we have divisions I always make sure we walk past it. It's weird what the mission does to you. That smell of animal feed just makes me smile cause its the exact same smell as the feed we get for the cows. I love it. Miss it. Only a year and a half till I get to just sit in the barn and smell that again.
Love y'all. Thank you for the emails. They save me. I love hearing updates about everyone's lives. Hurrah for Israel!
-Elder Noah Larsen
Elder Max Martineau:
Mesa Arizona Mission
1/26/26
What's up y'all!? Another week down over here in Arizona!
Nothing too crazy happened this week. Lots of ups and downs like always. We have been biking around a lot because we are finally having lessons again but none of them are close to each other. So it's a bit of a bike ride in between each lesson. On Thursday we ended up biking like 35 miles, that was fun. My legs are getting huge.
We had zone conference and it was a really chill one. It wasn't long, so I paid attention the whole time and there were some good trainings.
And don't even worry, we got Elder Larson a toothbrush. Now let's just hope that he's been using it every day.
Transfer news comes out on Saturday so next time I send you guys an email I'll probably be packing my bags up. Hopefully. I've been in this area my whole mission so I'm ready for a change. Also, I hit my 6 months this week! It's pretty crazy to think that I'm already 1/4 of the way but it also feels like I've been gone forever. It's weird.
And shoutout to Sister Rabe! She starts her mission today. She is going to be an amazing missionary. Australia is getting the best.
That's all for this week. I'm sad that the Broncos lost. But it's ok because I would have lots of FOMO if they made it to the super bowl and I don't get to watch haha. Love you all! Have a good week. Email me, I love to hear from you!
Love, Elder Martineau
Photo: Me and Elder Hinman manifesting that we go to the Tongan ward
Elder Dashle Demill
Brazil Goiania Mission
1/26/26
We may or may not have left a couple spoiled eggs in the garbage for too long, which resulted in us waking up Sunday morning ready for church only to find a ton of literal maggots crawling all over the floor. We spent the morning taking out garbage, cleaning the floor and killing as many as we could find. Sorry if this first paragraph made you queasy.
This week was a tougher one for the work. Nearly all the referrals we get (from other missionaries, social media, etc) don't have a correct address and they don't respond to the messages we send begging them for one. Then on top of that half our friends are straight up lying to us about different reasons for why they can't meet with us, so let's just say we did lots of street contacting and door knocking this week. We did have some awesome lessons though, including one with a younger member who is thinking about serving a mission soon but can't decide. We told her about mission life and shared our testimonies and after she said that was the answer she needed. Way to go, Nathali.
Other highlights:
- Remember our friend João? After an insane visit, possible life-threatening danger and calls to police and President he's now a red dot (ask your favorite returned missionary if you don't know what that means). I'm not getting into details for a reason, but if you're curious shoot me an email
- Every now and then we'll have friends asking us for money, and this week we had one who asked and then without waiting for a response started sending us payment options and his Pix account (basically Brazilian Venmo)
- Had a guy approach us asking if we were the guys who hand out Books of Mormon and talk about Joseph Smith, we were pretty excited to get his contact
- Hit 5 months and finished my Book of Mormon study on the same day
- Made it onto the ward's missionary wall
- Discovered jambu to be one of the most delicious fruits on the streets of Brazil
Spiritual thought:
As Christ appeared to the people of the ancient Americas, He presented Himself to them, announcing that He had "suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning." We then read what is perhaps one of the most amazing scenes in all of scripture - His invitation for the people to come and feel the marks in His hands, feet, and sides, to know for themselves that it was indeed He, the Savior and Redeemer of mankind.
How amazing it is that His very first teaching, before teaching this people of baptism and the Holy Ghost, of the sacrament or even the beattitudes, was His Atonement. Before anything else, He taught them of His sacrifice. It was by this divine sacrifice that they recognized that it "was He, whom it was written of the prophets, that should come." Before anything else, if we wish to identify our Savior in our lives, the first thing we must seek is a better understanding of His Atonement. The greater that understanding becomes, the better we are able to understand how to be His disciples. It is without a doubt the greatest manifestation of love to have ever existed, and it truly is vital for the eternal life we hope to eventually gain.
Love you all! Watch out for maggots.
- Elder DeMill
Sister Emilie Figlioli
Sister Figlioli has been called to the Knoxville Tennesse Mission
1/22/26
What is good?!
Well this week was pretty adventurous! I got to finish my last week on zoom!! (woot woot) But I'm so grateful I got to spend the last few days with my family which was so awesome!
Friday and Saturday were pretty boring between all the classes and everything. Sunday was pretty hard emotionally but it's good tears you know.
Monday was awesome! I had a half day of classes and got to spend the rest of the day celebrating my brother's birthday with the fam which was so good! I got to also go see the movie David which was pretty cool.
Tuesday was lit! Once again, no classes! I got to go to the temple with my parents which was so good! We went and got some frozen yogurt too which was awesome sauce! Other than that it pretty much just consisted of packing and cleaning.
Wednesday was the big day! I was able to go out to lunch with my family before I headed off to the MTC. It was sad saying goodbye but I know the Lord will bless me for it!
After kind of getting settled in yesterday, we now have our p-day today. So again, no classes for like the past 3 days. Me and my district went and did some pickleball, basketball, volleyball, and ping pong which was dope. But yeah, it's pretty cool to be here!!
Spiritual thought:
Yesterday night we had a devotional about the Character of Christ. And for those of you who have been to the Provo MTC you may know this, but they showed some clips of Elder Bednar and one of the things that he said when he defined the Character of Christ was that "He turned outward when we souls turn inward." The natural man is constantly wanting us to turn towards ourselves and think about why everyone should feel sorry for us when things aren't going how we would've liked. It's super important that in those moments, you think about the people around you and what you can do for them! I challenge each of you guys to try and do something selfless this week when you normally wouldn't have.
Hope you all had a good week! I hope you all are doing well!
Sister Emilie Figlioli
Brother & Sister Halls
Family History Center Service Missionaries
Behind me are all my ancestors giving me strength. Life passed through them to me. And in honor of them... I will live it fully!
See more on Burton Ward family history happenings HERE.
We serve as missionaries at the Family Search Center in Layton and we try to assist people as they come to the center. The people who come ask for help in a wide variety of ways; from setting up a password for familysearch.org to helping find an ancestor in Germany in the 1800’s.
The veil seems thin as we receive inspiration from those on the other side as we work. We also are in the temple each Tuesday morning. So blending research and then being at the temple where individuals and families receive their ordinances is so fulfilling to us. We know we are helping to gather Israel.
Love,
Brother & Sister Halls
Sister Angie Cottrell
FamilySearch VROC (Virtual Records Operation Center) Service Mission
I am currently serving in the FamilySearch VROC (Virtual Records Operation Center) Mission. I just completed my first year and recently extended for another six months. I love the flexibility of this mission. I am able to work from home and set my own schedule. I just have a minimum number of required hours to fulfill each week.
The objective of our mission is to “nourish the temple with names.” There are a variety of projects requiring various skill levels. Currently, I am working on a project to improve person pages on FamilySearch. Many pages lack the required dates and places needed to complete ordinances. I do my best to find sources, such as birth, death, or marriage records, and add this information to the FamilySearch tree. Relatives are then able to complete the temple work. I love when I find a record of a baby or child who was born and died between census years, so they were never included as part of the family. Knowing they can now be sealed to their parents is such a rewarding feeling.
Angie Cottrell
Sister Susan Tibbitts
Family Search Data Service Mission
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