Happy ﬨ Day! (Monday, March 14, 2016)

Dear Mom and everyone,

Okay so I know that that symbol isn't pi (it's actually some kind of Hebrew character), but it's the closest thing I could find while searching for about 5+ minutes through the character map. With my luck the real symbol for pi was probably one of the first ones I scrolled through and I didn't see it, but oh well. Use your imagination. Happy Pi Day! I think 3.1415926538 or something like that are the first few digits, and that's embarrassing that I actually know that. I guess having a semi-decent memory comes in handy sometimes, and that used to be on a wall in one of my teachers' classrooms. I wish my memory would help me remember everything that happened this week though! As usual, I'm drawing a blank. I'll start off with the biggest news. Someone who has been meeting with missionaries for over a year will be getting baptized on March 26th! The whole experience was quite remarkable actually and a privilege to be able to be there and be an instrument in the Lord's hands, but I'll simply say that Heavenly Father is willing to help us when we don't know what to do, especially when we are trying to help His children, and He will inspire us through the Holy Spirit to know what to say and what to do. Direction from Him is not always so specific and so direct, but He with His infinite knowledge and wisdom knows what is best for us and what kind of help to offer in each individual situation. Regardless of how He chooses to intervene and respond though, His love and awareness of each one of us is constant. Don't forget that! 

Other than that cool miracle last Monday, the rest of the week was pretty normal as far as missionary work goes. It rained for a week straight and that wasn't super fun, but it sure helped me appreciate the sunlight and made me almost giddy this morning when I woke up and realized that it had finally stopped! I hope you are all having a great week and don't forget to smile! Or you can try this experiment. Try saying something negative in that high-pitched, obnoxiously cheerful and squeaky voice (like the one that Barbie uses or those recordings that come on the phone while you're on hold). It doesn't work very well (but it's pretty funny for the people around you if you're in public). Well, with that, I hope you all have a great week! Stay on the sunny side! 

~Hermana Burton 

Mi abuelita! (Monday, March 7, 2016)

Dear Mom and _________,

I'm going to be honest and admit that I don't remember much of what happened this week. It's all a blur! The days and weeks and months all mesh together and then every Monday pops up and I can never remember what happened this week, or if it was last week, or the week before, or... you get the point. I realized yesterday that it's now March and I got to Sonoma at the end of November. And it feels like I've only been here for a few weeks! Crazy life. 

Well, some highlights of the week are that we have been continuing to meet with a family we have been teaching and they are moving forward in the Gospel! It has been such a pleasure to know them and see the hand of God in their lives. There is a mom and her son, and a grandma who has been visiting from Mexico. The mom and son seemed pretty open and willing to listen, but the grandma was pretty distant at first and I wasn't sure how she felt about us coming over and the message we were sharing. In my mind, I was thinking that the son and daughter will probably listen and want to change but that she wouldn't because she is probably just set in her ways and not willing to open her mind and heart. The first time we went over, she wouldn't come into the living room to sit and talk with us and she was sitting way back in the kitchen at a chair (she could still see us because the rooms are open and connected) but she didn't want to come closer to the couch, even though her daughter invited her to. Gradually throughout the lesson though, she moved closer bit by bit and she finally came into the living room area and sat in a chair in the corner, and then she came to the couch and sat by her daughter and participated in the lesson. She was still really funny though and kept asking us questions as if to make sure that we weren't teaching crazy stuff and going against the Bible, and at the end of the lesson I still just thought that she probably wouldn't want to change and that she was just set in her own religion but that she probably would be mad at her daughter if she decided to accept it. 

Well as it turns out, the next time we went over and asked if they had been reading the Book of Mormon and praying, the mom said that she hadn't had the time but then the grandma had been reading it every single night! Plot twist. We also stopped by another time to drop something off for them and the grandma was the only one home, but she told us to come in and she said she is going back to Mexico soon but that she will look for missionaries and our church there. When we told her we could send them to her if we knew her address, she went and immediately wrote down her address for us. She even came to church on Sunday with her grandson (the mom wasn't feeling well) and she said she enjoyed it and that even though she is a little bit older, it's never too late. In Sunday school she expressed that she wished her whole family could be there at the church and again that she is going to look for the church when she goes home and that she'll come to church here in Sonoma every time she comes to visit. I really love this woman. The more I get to know her, the more I see her like my own abuelita and I am so happy I had the chance to meet her. It's an evidence to me that only God knows the hearts of His children and who will or will not accept His Gospel, and we cannot make assumptions. And it's never too late! The Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses everyone, regardless of age, gender, status, or anything else. It's true folks! 

And other than this great family, I can't remember much of what happened. It has been really rainy and wet so that always puts a damper on things, but we can still have sunshine in our souls! I hope you all have a great week and keep on smiling!

Hermana Burton

Happy February 29th! (Monday, February 29, 2016)

Dear Mom and everyone,

Isn't this a great day to be alive? Think about it. This day only happens once every four years. It's like God's gift to humanity - an extra day to be alive! And for me, it's an extra day as a missionary. As each day passes, I'm reminded that this experience isn't going to last forever and that I need to do all I can to take advantage of every single day. I don't think that applies to just missionaries though. We all should take advantage of every single day and accomplish what God sent us here to accomplish. 

I've been noticing an interesting phenomenon this week, one that quite frankly bothered me quite a bit when I first starting noticing it. My companion and I worked hard this week and truly tried to use our time effectively. We spent hours finding and tracting - even when it was awkward and we were tired and didn't want to - and we did our best to do what we were supposed to be doing.  And at the end of the week... not much had happened. We had hardly any of what most people would call "success" and we taught very few lessons. Most of the members we were working with cancelled on us or didn't answer the door even when they were home, and one of the more active members even texted us to say that she was leaving the church for a little while. It was very discouraging and I didn't understand, because we had been working hard and doing what we were supposed to be doing. I have also always wondered why it seems like the more disobedient missionaries seem to have more "success" and have better experiences on their missions, and that's an answer that I'm still working on, but part of the answer started to come this morning as I was studying Doctrine and Covenants 4:4. Notice that is says that yes, the field is white and ready to harvest, but our personal responsibility is to "thrust in our sickle with our might" (or in other words, to work and do what the Lord ask of us) and that is what brings us the blessings and prepares us for salvation. We are not the harvesters. We are not even the planters. That it Heavenly Father's job and the Holy Ghost's job (because they are Heavenly Father's children and they are being gathered to Him, and the Holy Ghost is the only one who can plant the gospel in the hearts of the people). We are simply the laborers, or the "thrusters." And if we are doing that, then we are having success. So long story short, as long as we are working and doing what's right, we don't need to worry about the rest. God is good at handling details. 

Funny experiences this week: we knocked on a door and discovered a less-active family who lives there and they told us the "Arch Bishop" used to come visit them. And one of the kids was just standing in the background, sweeping the carpet. The one who answered the door had really long hair and a beard and I felt like I was in Willits again for a minute. Oh how I miss the strange folks there. Another Willits-ish experience: a clearly intoxicated and under the influence of marijuana man opened the door (in a different area we were in) and leaned forward and sighed a very breathy and whispery "Hiiiii" and all I could think was, "Yes, you are." In a different situation, we also had a young man trying to flirt with us and offering to take us out for tacos. There were also creepy old men that we had to literally run away from a different day. And let's not forget the other old man who showed us pictures of "sacred Indians" on his phone. Good times. 

Oh, I also sang in a quartet (SATB) yesterday in sacrament meeting at church with my companion and the two English missionaries in Sonoma, and the choir director is already searching for an Easter piece that we can perform. The ward was quite impressed, and I must admit that somehow we managed to pull it off pretty decently. I guess all those years singing in the shower paid off. 

Well, I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful extra day to be alive and don't stress! Just work hard, do what you're supposed to do, and things will work out. Lots of love from NorCal!

~Hermana Burton

Ready to plan out the week!

Life is pretty good. (Wednesday, February 25, 2016)

Dear Mom and _________,

I'm not even sure where to begin! Life is more normal now that there are just the two of us and we are only working in Sonoma, and we met some pretty cool people last week! One cool thing that happened is that we had a little bit of extra time before we were supposed to go back to our apartment last Tuesday, but there wasn't enough time to go show up on someone's doorstep and teach, so we decided to go to the Plaza to see if anyone was out so we could talk to people. There weren't many people there anyway and all of the people we talked to were in English and nobody really seemed to care about who we were so we were about to get in the car to go back when we decided to walk around one last time before heading home. So we did, and we found one more person! And she spoke Spanish! We had a really great conversation with her and her friend and she told us where she lived so we could come over and share our message with her in the daytime. We taught her a few times last week and they were great lessons, and the Spirit was especially strong in the last one! When we asked her if she would pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, she said that she didn't need to because she could "feel it in her heart" already that he was. She is a really sweet woman. She was going to come to church on Sunday, but something happened I guess because there was no answer at the door on Sunday when we stopped by. We haven't been able to get in touch with her since, but we're going to keep trying this week. I don't know what is going to happen, but I do know that she has felt the Spirit and that she knows it's true. Maybe we will be the ones to find her again or maybe Heavenly Father has a different plan, but things will work out. 

Another cool thing happened yesterday when we went to see if her friend was home. We realized when we were trying to look up his address that we had records of a bunch of other people living there and we weren't sure which number was his. We decided to go check it out anyway, even though we knew that we weren't going to be able to see him because we didn't know which number he was in, but we decided to see if we could find at least find the address. We parked up a street close to where it would be and as we were getting out of the car, my companion looked at me and said something like, "So pretty much we're here to walk to the apartment, look at it, and then leave?" I realized that it didn't sound like such a great plan when I heard it that way, but we decided to go check it out anyway. We found the address number and kept walking a little past to see if we could figure out how far down it went, when something moved in the shadow of the garage and a man stepped out. He was still in the shadow and we couldn't see him well, so we asked if he knew which door the man that we were looking for lived in, and it turns out that he was the one we were looking for! He had lost his other phone with our phone number in it, so we gave him our number again and set up a return appointment for tomorrow! I don't know that we would have found him and where he lived had we not gotten out of the car to go look at the apartment, even though it seemed a little ridiculous to both of us at the time. 

Also, the reason why I am emailing today is because Elder James Hamula came to our mission and spoke to us on Monday. It was great! I definitely felt the Spirit testify as he spoke and I know the things he addressed to us came from our Heavenly Father. He spoke in General Conference in October 2008 (it's called "Winning the War against Evil") and he mentioned many similar things to us. Check out that talk when you have a moment, it is pretty powerful. Well, I love you all bunches and I hope you have a great week!

~Hermana Burton

Pictures!

My favorite person from Spain, gigantic husky, me and my companion,
and the tiny house!

Staying in Sonoma! (Monday, February 15, 2016)

Dear Mom and ________,

Well, another transfer has come and gone and I will be staying in Sonoma with Hermana Gudmundson! I am really excited because our last transfer together didn't even feel like a real transfer because of so many different things that happened and all of the craziness, but I know this transfer will be better and I can't wait to just go out and work hard because I know there are people here who are ready to accept the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! We haven't been able to see many people in a while because of the interesting situation we had with our area and Napa and a missionary preparing to return home, but we already have a lot of set appointments this week with people we have been trying to get into contact with and I feel like something big is going to happen in these next few weeks. 

There's not too much to report looking back on the week because we had so many meetings and medical appointments and driving time in the car, but this week is going to be more productive. Just a heads up, my next email will be coming next Wednesday instead of Monday. Love you all bunches! Have a wonderful week!

~Hermana Burton

One of the coolest Samoans I have ever met

One of my favorite families in the world!

Another week has come and gone! (Monday, February 8, 2016)

Dear Mom and you,

Crazy week! Everything worked out though because the investigator that was being taught in Napa got baptized on Saturday and she is doing well! We also had Stake Conference this week and it was a pretty neat experience. Some of the other missionaries were in charge of translating the meeting from English to Spanish for some of the Hispanic members present and I haven't really had to translate much on my mission so I went up to them to see if I could sit near them and listen and then one said, "Sure! You're translating the opening prayer." So I did that, and then one of the other Hermanas was going to be translating the two female talks given but I asked her if I could do one of them. So I did. It was pretty fun. I was really nervous at first and pretty sure I was going to mess up a lot, and there were a few words I wasn't sure about, but the only way to learn is to try it and it actually went pretty well. It was only a very short talk and pretty simple too, but it was a good first experience and I'm glad that I decided to try. I know that Heavenly Father has really helped me learn Spanish, even without serving around a lot of Hispanic people, and I'm grateful for that help and I'm glad I was able to use what He has given me to help others. 

Other than that, the week was [not] too eventful. We spent a lot of time in the car driving back and forth between Napa and Sonoma, and we're still be covering both areas for one more week. That's okay though, everyone always works out. If there is one thing I have learned in my life, it's that things will work out. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Until next time!

~Hermana Burton

Serving in the Lord's vineyard. Literally. Now all of those parables make more sense...

Hiking with the zone! 74 degrees on February 8th!

Happy February! (Monday, February 1, 2015)

Dear Mom and everyone else,

Coming at you live right now from Sonoma, California- Happy February! Highs this week are in the upper 60s and we broke 70 one day last week... I hope you're all enjoying the snow! Update from last week, after "dropping" everyone last week and setting a goal to find at least five new people to teach, we reached our goal! Miracles are real folks, especially when you show your faith first. 

That's not the only news this week though. I have a new companion! And I still have the old one too! There are now three of us. At dinner on Friday President Wright called us and one of the Hermanas in Napa had to go home early the next day due to illness, so he was going to drop off her companion Hermana Sarvey with us the very next morning. Now she is with us and we are driving the half-hour back and forth between the two areas to cover both of them because they were working with someone preparing to be baptized and we still have people to work with here. It gets even crazier though, because my companion Hermana Gudmundson was in Napa before coming to Sonoma and her companion for three months before me was Hermana Sarvey, who goes home in two weeks! So now we're all in Sonoma but making things work between covering both Napa and Sonoma. Crazy life. That's okay though, I know it will all work out. 

More news. I finally attended a Spanish Branch! For the first time on my mission as a Spanish missionary (for a year as of this week), I finally attended a sacrament meeting in Spanish. Somehow I've managed to end up so far in all of the English wards/areas where Spanish Hermanas serve. I was really excited because I've heard how great it is from other companions and missionaries, but I have to be completely honest and say that it wasn't what my anticipation had built it up to be. It was a testimony builder to me though that I have been watched out for and put in places that would be best for me and the area. I guess that probably doesn't make sense, let me try to explain (my head is still scrambled up from all of the craziness of trying to figure things out so I apologize if none of this makes sense). We attended all of our church meetings first in Sonoma and I was so happy! People we have been working with came to church and we had a great sacrament meeting and we had quite a few people in our Spanish Sunday School group and I couldn't help but smile because I was with people that I dearly love and I could see them making progress. I realized how much I really do love these people and care about their families and their lives and I felt connected to them on a very personal level. Then we went to Napa right after our meeting to catch their sacrament meeting in Spanish, and I felt very out of place and uncomfortable. Not because of the Spanish, that part was wonderful, but because I didn't know the people and I felt no connection to them at all and there were too many other missionaries running around. I have nothing against it and to be honest I will most likely be in a Branch after I leave Sonoma because I've already been to all of the other possible places that don't have one, but it just showed me that Heavenly Father really is in charge of this work and that He placed me in Sonoma and each area that I have been in for a reason and I have loved working with all of these people on a very personal, individual level which isn't so easy in areas with more Hispanics and more missionaries around.

Anyway, life is crazy but that's okay because it's all for our good and I know it will all work out. I hope you all have a great week! Happy Groundhog Day tomorrow!

~Hermana Burton

Not to rub it in Mom, but....

I saw your snow shot so I ran outside the church to take a picture of
what it's like outside right now here in Sonoma. Happy February!