Sister Burton Takes on Anaheim!: Week 36: Right place at the right time.

HELLO EVERYBODY!
Wow, another week has come and gone and we honestly saw SO many miracles! My cheeks hurt from smiling. We worked our tails off this week and saw so many wonderful things happen! We did lots of finding and quite a bit of teaching!
As a missionary, you learn to roll with the punches when lessons/plans fall through. This week we realized that even though that happened a lot, we were still where we needed to be at the right time.

RANDOM FUNNIES/EXCITING THINGS/TENDER MERCIES:

*Monday night we met this guy named Erik! He's a YSA...so we'll eventually have to pass him off, but we had such a great conversation with him about God and religion. He was excited to sit down and talk more, but because his work schedule is nuts, we'll have to wait on that.

*Wednesday we had ZONE CONFERENCE! We talked a lot about how we can better fulfill our purpose as missionaries, how we can have more humility, and many other things. I always come away edified and ready to be an even better missionary!
Also, that evening as we were out knocking doors, we happened to run into 2 members! What are the odds?! One of them was in our records, but the other one attends a different ward, so we had no idea they lived there. It was just too funny that we would randomly tract into them.

*Thursday we had District Finding in our area! We prayerfully selected some streets in a neighborhood and all of our district members took a street and knocked the doors. We personally weren't finding many interested people. We got to the end of our street and decided to go another one. We only had a few minutes left, so we chose a couple houses to knock. The LAST door we knocked on, a guy named Kirk answered. At first, he didn't seem interested, but I just kept talking (definitely the Spirit taking over because I wasn't sure what else to say). He accepted a Book of Mormon, said he would read it, and that we could come back! WHAT?! Seriously, the LAST door we knocked on and he actually listened! TENDER MERCY!
Other district members also found a few people that might be interested, so we'll try them all soon!

*Saturday was absolutely amazing! We had lessons set and they all fell through. We went out finding and no one was home. We decided to go visit Wanda in her care facility in Fullerton. We've been visiting her husband, Kevin (who isn't a member. Remember, the guy we randomly ran into too?) Anyway, we walked by the front of the facility and none other than KEVIN was just getting ready to leave. When he saw us, he decided to come back in with us. Wanda was in much better condition compared to the last time we saw her, although she still can't talk. It was so sweet, watching Kevin take care of her and realizing how much love they have for each other, even when physical disabilities have taken over. He asked us to offer a prayer and expressed his deepest gratitude that we would come to visit his wife. He said he enjoys it when we stop by and talk with him, too! Even though he doesn't consider himself a religious guy, he has really been opening up.
ALSO, we had a BOMB impromptu lesson with Adam (the kid that saw us getting out of our car about a month ago, and asked if we had anything he could have.) He had the most AMAZING story of how he's come to know God. He only recently started getting involved in religion. We taught him the Restoration and he GETS IT! He'll probably be passed off to YSA soon, BUT we're so happy we've been able to teach him. He is so solid and is excited to learn more!
Also had dinner with Nora at a member's home and were able to see where she's at with the church. She says she LOVES the friendship from everyone and even said Sister Jensen and I are her adopted daughters! Anyway, she said she's felt things, but she really wants to know for herself. The conversation really helped us better understand where she is coming from. We'll have to start off slow by having spiritual thoughts and visits with her.

*SUNDAY was another great day! As we went into Sacrament meeting, one of the members pulled us aside and told us her 10 year old granddaughter, Maddison,(who attends fairly regularly) is finally ready to be baptized. She asked if we could come over later that day and teach her. Um, YES! We had a cool little lesson with her and she has such a light about her.
We also had a cool visit with the part-member family, the Earley's. They ALL sat in and we shared a video that opened up some questions about the Plan of Salvation. It was so awesome and the family looks forward to our visits. We hope to continue to help things progress along!

Wow, honestly, this week was amazing! We were both willing to put in the work and we saw the Lord's hand guiding us every step of the way. Even when things fell through and we weren't sure what to do, we always seemed to end up in the right place at the right time.
Sorry for this extensive email, I just had SO MUCH TO SAY! I'll end with a brief testimony.

At zone conference, Sister Golden talked about humility and how each of us missionaries must have a portion of humility, to give up our lives for 18-24 months, to serve the Lord. I've been thinking about that the past few days (especially with my 8 month mark coming up this week) and realized that yes, I did put some things on hold, but NOTHING compares to the sacrifices the Lord has made on my behalf. Thinking of all that He has done for me, this "sacrifice" is not much. This is the very, very least I could ever do for Him. I love being a missionary and getting to share this message with those who are prepared! TRULY this has brought me the MOST joy I've ever had in my entire life.

Share the light! Stand out! The world needs to share more goodness! Be an example!

Love you all!

~Sister Burton

P.S. we've vowed to take more pictures, so get ready for an overload!