Sister Burton Takes on Anaheim!: Week 18: English is Weird!

I'm not sure how it's already October..time is flying by! This week I'll hit my 4 month mark! And at the end of this transfer, I'll have been out for 1/4 of my mission. Ahhhh! This week we've been getting more adjusted to both areas, but it's still been hard to spend equal amounts of time in both. However, we're getting there!

-Monday there was a crazy brush fire up in Anaheim Hills! It lasted all of Monday and Tuesday. They even had to close down one of the lanes on the highway because the flames were so close! I guess that's what happens in the desert. Luckily, it didn't come close to any homes!
-On Wednesday night we hung out with the Activity Day girls! We ate dinner with them and talked about missionary work. The girls are so precious! It was fun to think about what I was like at that age! We asked them what they thought the difference was between Elders and Sisters. One girl said, "The Sisters smell better and the Elders smell bad!" (haha) We then let them ask us random questions. One cute, quiet girl asked, "Do you have to know someone for 2 years before you can get married?" We weren't sure what to say. (haha). One of her leaders piped in, "Well, that would probably be a good thing, but it's not required." Such cute little girls!
-I guess another interesting happening was that we received 2 missionaries from Puerto Rico. Obviously, I don't know much about what's been going on down there, but I heard they had to evacuate missionaries. Two Elders have been transferred into our mission. We met them briefly at Zone Conference.

Another funny: Last week we went to the mission office to wash our car. Sister Evali was cleaning, I was squeeging, and Sister Green was drying. Sister Greene told Sister Evali, "You gotta put some elbow grease into it." Sister Evali immediately gets up, goes into the shed, grabs the Dawn dishsoap and asks, "Is this it?!" We DIED! She is so sweet! Since she's still learning English, we sometimes have to explain different expressions and sayings, because in the words of Sister Evali, "English is weird." Agreed!'

TYLER: Tyler is a friend of someone who is currently serving a mission from the YL4 ward. A few weeks ago, Sister Green and Sister Phillips contacted all the missionaries serving from the ward, asking if they knew anyone who would liked to learn more about the church. Elder Olive quickly told us about his friend, Tyler. We had a lesson in the Olive's home on Wednesday and it was SO GOOD! Tyler brought a notebook and took notes on different scriptures we shared and questions he had. He said he wants to continue to learn more and will even come to church this next week!! There is just something special about having lessons in members' homes. The lessons always go so much better! We'll be meeting with him again shortly!

HAILLY: The previous Sisters met Hailly, who is a young, stay-at-home mom. She learned about the Restoration a few weeks ago and we've been trying to get back to teach her more. We saw her Wednesday, but she was busy. We went back Thursday and had a great lesson about The Plan of Salvation! We all agreed the lesson was slightly all over the place (since we weren't able to have companion study before our lesson....studies are SO important as a missionary). BUT, Hailly had so many great insights and said, "This just makes sense to me. I could really see myself enjoying this religion." The Spirit was so strong and it was beautiful to experience! She should be coming to church next week as well. We have a return appointment scheduled for this Thursday! Hailly told us she liked us and is eager to learn more! Wahoo!

We had the most spiritual weekend ever! Friday, we had Zone Conference and then of course, this weekend was General Conference. Zone Conference was so exciting because we talked more about online proselyting. As we talked about the successes of other missionaries using Facebook and other avenues for proselyting online, I couldn't help but feel excited. This is truly how the Lord can hasten His work! Social media and technology will not go away, and, in the words of Elder Bednar, "We cannot be afraid of it anymore." Yes, it will take some discipline as missionaries, but the Lord has entrusted us with this great power. I know that as we begin using this wonderful tool, we will begin to see miracles and be able to reach those who truly are ready for the message of the Restored Gospel.

General Conference!! Holy cow! The only thing better about watching conference is watching conference AS A MISSIONARY! We went to the church and watched the broadcast (with a handful of members) and it was so nice to be completely focused on the talks without any other distractions. Like I do every year, I took my index card of questions to conference and boy were they answered! There were SO many amazing talks! Here's a list of top talks I recommend going back and reading soon:
-Elder Pingree
-Elder Holland (of course)
-Elder Rasband
-The entire Sunday morning session
-Elder Ellis....and so many more

I noticed a common theme of how we should better understand our divine worth and by knowing that, we can truly be happy! President Uchtdorf's talk could not have been a better kick-off talk for the weekend. He talked about how each of us is longing for our eternal home and as we turn to the Savior, we can know His plan for us. Many of these talks can so easily be applied to missionaries. Through these talks, I realized my divine worth as a missionary and how Heavenly Father has great plans for me here where I'm serving.

I also loved Elder Rasband's talk about how there are no coincidences! I've always been a firm believer that Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. I've come to realize that even MORE, since I've been on my mission. I know without a shadow of a doubt, that everything happens for a reason, for His reason. He is watching over us everyday and is "orchestrating important things in your life." We all would do better to ponder upon those times when we've seen the Lord's hand in our lives. I think too often we forget that He really DOES care, especially during the hard times. He never leaves us alone. The Lord is truly going before us and leading us on! We are so blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father!

We also got to go to the Mission Home to watch the Priesthood session with Sister Golden. She made crepes and eggs (definitely didn't eat the eggs). This is the first time I've watched the Priesthood session live and it was amazing! I even learned some things that I can apply in my own life. I'm grateful that we have the Priesthood restored on the earth today!

Even though Conference can be very overwhelming, because you want to improve on a billion things all at once, I invite you to pick ONE thing you want to work on and make a plan to do it! Sister Bingham's talk really resonated with me. I've made the goal to memorize "The Living Christ" by Christmas. There are 13 paragraphs and 13 weeks until Christmas, so it's totally doable. I'm planning on memorizing a paragraph a week (and picking up a second paragraph when the paragraphs are short). I'm grateful for this time that we have to ponder on the words of the living Prophets and Apostles. I'm so grateful for this knowledge of a living Prophet and that He leads this church today, under the direction of our Beloved Savior, Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ lives and LOVES YOU!

All my love,

~~Sister Burton