Week 56: So Zen

Cassity is currently taking a meditation class and she regularly says that things are "SO ZEN!" We like to tease her about it!
 
  WOW, what another great week here in OHYSA! The week flew by, but the miracles and memories stuck around!

MAEVE: We had a great lesson with her before Institute on Tuesday (and she stayed for institute again!). When she leaves the house, she tells her parents that she's going to a friend's to watch a movie, so she has to squeeze her friend in after our lessons! I mean, whatever excuse can get her to the lessons ;) A super awesome member, Haylie, (who clicks really well with Maeve) invited her out to dinner with us Friday to Souplantation (which is a most delicious buffet complete with the most beautiful salad bar I've ever laid eyes on). Anyway, afterwards we went to the church and had another great lesson! Maeve just soaks up these lessons and is so gung-ho!
   We had a "Testaments" movie night with her before attending a baptism in Anaheim on Saturday. She enjoyed the cheesy, spiritual movie, but was a little freaked out about the baptism. The reality of the newness of joining a different church hit her. She can sometimes get worked up and anxious about things, but she is strong and knows that it's just something new and she'll be a-ok!
  She leaves for Alabama on the 3rd and her mom is out of town most of this week, so we'll be finishing the lessons with her so after she gets settled down there, she is free to get baptized! Woo hoo! When we brought up baptism to see where she was at with all of it, she responded with one of the reasons she wants to be baptized.  "Well, I'm not able to save my bookmarks or highlights on the app since I'm not a member so.... ." We all died! Maeve is so special and we're BFFs! Love her!!

CASSITY: We had probably 1 of the top 10 most spiritual lessons EVER the other night! We were able to have a lesson in a member's home (Stephanie). We finally were able to teach Cassity the entirety of the Restoration. First off, right from the beginning the Spirit was very present. Cassity commented on how her meditation journey is so closely related to her religious journey and how she sees so many similarities. After explaining the First Vision, Cassity laughed. She said, "It's funny that you say that because today in our meditation we had to envision a big beam of light over our head, that was brighter than the sun, and it illuminated all of its surroundings and we could feel it throughout our entire body." I'm pretty sure our jaws dropped. After that, the Spirit really dialed up! Stephanie opened up about her conversion, Sister Brooks and I were so close to tears and Cassity said  she had never felt so much peace and was overflowing with tears. She knows that this is the path she wants! Cassity has a lot of anxieties and fears, but she has slowly become more confident and sure of this path! She has faced a little bit of flack for being associated with the church (which has been one of her biggest fears), but she is coming SO far! YAY Cassity!

Random tidbits:

*We launched our Member Missionary Challenge (complete with a super cheesy launch video that we missionaries and a member made together). We have a 500 piece puzzle that we're trying to complete by the beginning of August. The way they can earn pieces is by sharing the gospel and inviting others to "come and see." We taught Relief Society about it yesterday and they were SO pumped! We put in a lot of preparation for it this week. Sister Brooks and I had to put the entire puzzle together so we could number the back and... really tried our patience, but we did it!). Stay tuned for how the challenge turns out!
*Random miracle: I met this randon guy, Eddie, at IVC 2 weeks ago. He didn't seem too interested, but we hit him up anyway. He said he wanted to come check out the church. We set up a chapel tour for Saturday with the Elders and EDDIE CAME! We found him, sitting out on the lawn, waiting for us when we got there. He hasn't been to church in awhile, so he wanted to check ours out! THEN, he came to all 3 hours of church yesterday too! He said he felt very calm and that the services felt really good! We came to find out that he lives in Riverside (which is about a 1-2 drive away and way out of our mission) What dedication! We'll see if he's truly interested in learning more! The Elders are going to be meeting with him later this week! Wahoo!

Spiritual Note:
  We attended a YSA fireside last night with a man, Nathan Ogden. He was involved in a skiing accident 16 years ago and is paralyzed from the chest down. He had such a phenomenal story, where he mentioned that as soon as he found his purpose in life and decided to live, that things got better. Not easier, but better! He talked about how each of us have excuses in our lives that either put us on a pedestal above others or that tear us down. He told us to write down our excuse and get rid of it! We need to find our purpose and be driven by that! I was so inspired! Turning inward and looking for the excuse we tend to use to lower our potential or our standards and then discarding it can be such a powerful thing! I was able to do that for myself and I invite YOU to do the same! Heavenly Father has so much in store for you! Don't let excuses get in the way of what you were sent here to do!

I LOVE being a missionary! I love this area! I love the people! I'm beyond blessed to be here! I'm excited for another week!

Love you all! Thanks for your constant support!


Sister Burton
2500 N. Bristol St.
Santa

We found this cool mushroom-like cozy seat at this super nice complex.

Our set-up for the member challenge.

Went tabling at SCC with the Sisters.

NADIA, Superstar member!

Dinner with Haylie and Maeve. 

 Puzzle mode and the finished product! I love this picture!

Week 55: You both have super hypnotic eyes...

^^^A non member guy that has been coming to church randomly walked up to us yesterday and told us this. Then he just walked away....We've still been laughing about it!

THIS WEEK WAS SO GOOD! We had countless miracles and a revival even happened too!

MAEVE: Maeve was able to sneak out of her house this past Tuesday evening to attend Institute! This is the first time she's attended any of our ward events, needless to say, it was a huge milestone! The class was also exactly what she needed! We read an excellent talk from President Nelson waaay back in the day that talked about honoring our parents and also honoring God, which is the very struggle she's been dealing with recently. She loved it and she's coming again tomorrow! She even mentioned her mom will be out of town this week so we're going to meet up a few times!

THE REVIVAL: We met up for lunch with an investigator, Cassity. She stopped meeting with the Sisters when I came into the area. She's a law student, so she was super busy with school, and had some other things come up, so she put her investigation on hold and recently wanted to truly discontinue meeting with us. Well, we had lunch and we were able to address some of her concerns and misconceptions about doctrine.
  We had an amazing lesson Thursday with a fairly recent convert, Jamie. Cassity and Jamie connected on so many levels and it was great to see how similar their stories are. Cassity LOVED learning about The Plan of Salvation. She commented how her heart is screaming "YES, THIS IS TRUE", while her head is full of doubts and fears. But she's really wanting to keep up with this and learn for herself. She came to church yesterday and the members were so happy to see her back! Cassity is so driven and I know that she has what it takes!

SATURDAY IN SANTA ANA: I got to go on exchanges with lovely Hermana Vera in her area. She is the most adorable, sweetest Chilean person I've ever met. We had such an amazing day of finding, but also...finding 2 unplanned opportunities to teach! We truly went where the Spirit guided us. We met a precious mother, Ruby, whom we were able to sit down and teach a little. (I attempted to read Mosiah 2:41 in spanish to be somewhat involved in the lesson...haha). Then at the end of the night, we walked down the main street and turned the corner and found a couple on their porch. They said they had JUST been talking about mormons and then we showed up. The woman, Rosa, who said she was comfortable in her church ended up being the one who was so curious! It was such a tender lesson! I just love the Spanish language and all the people we're blessed to meet in this melting pot called, "Southern California".

  We've still been finding and sifting to find the truthseekers! We went to IVC this week to see if anyone would still be there for summer classes and they were! Our ward is also really hopping on board to get involved in member missionary work, which is AWESOME! The area is continuing to grow and thrive and the members can feel it too! I'm so so grateful to be here in this beloved YSA ward. There is never a dull moment!

 Recently, President Golden gave each of us a copy of "The Consecrated Missionary" from Elder Callister and invited us to read it over and over. In my interview with him this past week, he told me that especially since I'm nearing the last part of my mission, to consider what more I could do to be consecrated. I know there are things that we each do that we could bring to our altar of sacrifice. I invite you to ponder what you could give up to be more consecrated as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I'll be doing the same ;)

LOVE you all! Thank you for the prayers and continued support! Until next week...


Sister Burton
2500 N. Bristol St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706

 Lunch with friends last P-day.

Saw a surfboard at the church. I even had my beachy hair that day.

Plan of Salvation lesson with Cassity (on the right) and Jamie!

Hermana Vera

Father's Day dinner with our "mission dad," Brother Day.

Went on a hike this morning.

.Went on a hike this morning! Some new friends of ours even wanted to get in a picture with us (we ended up giving them a Book of Mormon!)

Week 54: 1 Year

HOLA! This week has been another one for the books! I'll try to narrow it down to the BEST highlights:

    Earlier this week, we got a referral, so we went and saw her. She let us in to share more of our message. Come to find out, she's engaged to an LA Chargers football player! 1 ) That's super cool; I felt like I was meeting a celebrity or something. 2) We'll have to pass her off to a family ward...since she doesn't meet the criteria for our ward....haha.

  Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was all about member missionary work! That's something that we've been trying to get going in our ward and we received so much inspiration and so many good ideas for how to do it! We're going to try a "member missionary challenge" in our ward where we show the members ALL the various tools we have to share the gospel, invite them to think of a friend, role play   how they would share the gospel with that friend, and then challenge them to do it that week. We're working out the details, but we have already gotten a lot of positive response from the members! We're going to meet with some of them this week to issue the challenge. Stay tuned!
 
  MAEVE MIRACLES: Right as we got out of Zone Conference, we noticed that we received a text from Maeve, saying that her mom was out of town for the day and she wanted to meet up! Well, it just so happened that we would be going to dinner at a member's house and the member (Kiara) wanted us to invite an investigator! Well, Maeve and Kiara hit it off! We were able to wrap up our dinner with a lesson! Maeve was saying that she missed our joy and positivity!
  But wait, there's more! Thursday we met up with Maeve and her member friend, Emily, for dinner at CAFE RIO (my favorite place). We then got to take Maeve on a chapel tour and got to have another lesson! That was the first time we were able to take her to the church. It was so powerful! She opened up about how hard it is for her to find the joy in her investigation because it has to be done in secret. But she's moving to Alabama next month for school and she'll have freedom from her family and be able to get baptized there.  (she's already looked up the YSA ward there....who is this girl?!) She's already noticed a difference in her relationship with her Mom as she's been praying for Heavenly Father's help in all of this. Heavenly Father is most definitely providing a way for Maeve.

  Thursday was also our 1 YEAR MARK! We sounded like a couple of old ladies that day as we were talking about, "I remember last year...". Dinner with Maeve at Cafe Rio was the perfect way to celebrate!
  I've also been reading my journal from a year ago and its been so cool to see how much I've grown since then. My fears have dissipated, my knowledge of the gospel has grown, and most importantly, I've become so much closer to my Savior! What a marvelous year it has been!

EXCHANGE MAGIC: I got to go on an exchange with Hermana Otis. Funny story, she actually knows Janice, my older sister! They were in the same ward in VA. We had a great time Saturday, going out finding and talking with people! We had a super cool experience that was an answer to a prompting I received recently. The past 2 weeks, I've felt very strongly that I needed to start studying the Bible more in my personal study. This past week I began reading the book of Acts and I LOVE IT! I wasn't sure why I had such a specific prompting, but I've been moving forward with it. Well, we stopped and talked to this guy in his car and he started asking us about the Book of Mormon and our view on the Bible. He then asked, "Have you read Acts?" I excitedly responded "YES!" and we were able to make a connection with both books. It was such a quick moment in time, but the Spirit confirmed to me then that that was one of the reasons I needed to study the Bible more.
 
  As I've studied the first few chapters of Acts, alongside of the Book of Mormon, my testimony of both books has grown exponentially! As I was reading the Bible, I knew that it truly supports the Book of Mormon. Many people think they contradict one another, but I don't see that. My eyes and my heart have truly been opened to all of the many wonderful revelations and resources God has given us to learn more about Him and to come closer to Him and to our Savior, Jesus Christ!

  I'm grateful to bear the name of Jesus Christ each and everyday! Remember, you bear His name too! They might not see it written on your chest, but others see it in your countenance, words, and actions. Make Him proud!

Love,

Sister Burton
2500 N. Bristol St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706

Volunteered at a Women's shelter. These suit jackets were begging for a photoshoot.

ZONE CONFERENCE

Dinner with Maeve and Kiara.

1 year Photoshoot with Maeve and Emily

When did this happen?

Some special grilling for our 1 year!

Exchanges with Hermana Otis!

Finding with Denisse!

Tried an Ube donut! (Ube is a Filipino potato).

Week 53: A $40 miracle!

As you can tell by the subject line, this email is going to be well worth every penny! We had a fantastic week! We didn't find anyone new to teach BUT we saw so many miracles, as we went about looking for the prepared souls.

*We had our pass off lesson with Teresa and Elders from another YSA ward. The lesson went so well and again, I am amazed at how prepared Teresa is! In her prayer at the end, she said, "I've been really looking forward to this! Thank you for the Elders and Sisters and their help." Just so sincere, bless her heart! She is in good hands! We look forward to her baptism soon!

*Like I mentioned last week, we've had members sign up to come out finding with us! We saw so many miracles! Baylee came out with us on Friday and she mentioned a friend from her youth that she hadn't seen in awhile, so we went hunting her down! At first she wasn't home, but as we walked away, we noticed $40 sitting on the sidewalk in front of her neighbor's house. We were utterly confused because we hadn't seen anyone walk by recently. We knocked on the neighbor's door and lo and behold, a YSA aged young man, Garrett, opened the door. We asked if it was his money and he got really confused. He was surprised that we didn't just take it. The whole money mystery was the perfect segway into the gospel! We had an amazing conversation with him. He HIMSELF even mentioned he didn't think it was a conincidence that we met him. He's been trying to figure out what he believes and has been confused with so many different churches. He committed himself to reading The Book of Mormon! We didn't get to set up an appointment, but we hope to stay in touch and go back soon to teach him more. Who knew $40 could lead you to someone who was prepared?!

*Saturday a lesson fell through, but our bomb member, Mary (who has helped us out so much before), came out with us anyways. We had some good conversations and we even randomly knocked into a 16 year old that's investigating in another ward. Who'd of thunk?

*Saturday we attended a Stake baptism (which was a first for me) with Fawn! She had no words to describe how powerful the service was. She even had some questions about what her baptism will be like. Amazing! She has been and will be busy for the next 2 weeks as she finishes up her finals. She mentioned that she's felt guilty that she hasn't been able to make time for God as much as she should, but she's trying. We're continuing to stay in close contact and help her these next few weeks, by that time she'll have more time to prepare for her baptism!

*We finally got a new ward missionary leader who is fresh back from his mission. Aaron is gonna be great!

*Saturday night we had a unique experience! We were at an apartment complex park where we were walking around talking to people. We walked past an older couple that was sitting on a park bench crying. We approached them and she opened up to us and said that they're having some problems with their son. She told us she'd been praying all day and was just about to give up hope in God and then we showed up. Her husband, with tears in his eyes and through his broken English, kept saying "Wow. This is incredible. Thank you". We testified and the Spirit was so, so strong. It was amazing!
  That moment was a testimony builder for me. We are placed in the paths of people who need us...everyday....whether or not we know it. My challenge to you is to continue following the promptings you receive. You may not realize the answer to prayers that you might be for others, but I testify that you CAN be! People need you!

  This Thursday I hit my 1 year mark as a full-time missionary! I can't believe I've been out this long! I am so grateful to be out here in California, sharing the gospel. It sure hasn't been easy, but it has been joyful and worth it! I love being a missionary and getting to serve my brothers and sisters here! What a blessing! I love this time of my life!


Sister Burton
2500 N. Bristol St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706

Got to hang out with my SISTER GREENE last week!

We were sorta matching. Sister Brooks was thrilled!

Dinner with Mary!

The $40 miracle night with Baylee!

A weird tree that looks like a cat contraption.

Saying bye to Becca, who is leaving for her mission to Texas tomorrow.

A hike with our Sisters this morning!

Out with Mary...again!

Week 52: The Start of a new Transfer

Hello to all!

 This week has been fantastic! The weather was surprisingly gloomy so my gnarly watch tan has begun to slowly fade away...But again, we saw so many miracles! The semester has been wrapping up around here, so we haven't been able to catch as many people on campus. But let me talk about some of the amazing miracles we experienced this week with some of our friends:

TERESA (good name, huh mom?): The Elders met her at Santiago Canyon College Monday night and set up a return appointment for us for Tuesday. Well, Teresa is SOLID. She hasn't gone to church for awhile because she felt that they brought her further away from God and His teachings, but she has been continually searching since then! As we taught her the Restoration, she noted the feelings she was having. She mentioned how she couldn't totally describe how the Spirit feels to her, but that she was feeling it right then. She accepted to be baptized on June 30th! Wahoo! Currently she works during the day Sunday, but she willingly offered to switch her schedule so she can attend church! Where did she come from?! She actually lives in the boundaries of another YSA ward, so we'll be passing her off this week. What a miracle to meet Teresa!

MAEVE: She never ceases to amaze us! We set up to have a lesson over Facebook video chat Tuesday morning, but when we logged on, her mom and sister kept trying to come into her room and it was stressing Maeve out! She is still trying to keep it a secret that she is meeting with us and didn't want to get caught!
  Well, later that day, she texted us, saying she had about 15 minutes before she was meeting a friend and she could talk to us. We pulled over, parked, and had a lesson with her! She too was parked in her car! I am absolutely amazed at the dediction Maeve has to learning about this gospel. She is willing to do anything and everything.

FAWN: We had another great lesson with her on Saturday with Sister Golden and Mary, an awesome member of our ward. A few of her concerns were brought up as we taught the Plan of Salvation. She comes from a background of not knowing really anything about God or Jesus Christ, but she said herself that she is progressing to fully believe and understand their nature. Fawn is really opening up the more and more we meet with her! One roadblock has seemed to present itself though...Since she recently started a new job and still has 3 more weeks of classes, she has been super swamped and wasn't able to make it to church yesterday. We're praying that she can stay strong and still make time for these important things in her life! We know that by making church a priority, everything else will fall into place!

ANDRE: We just felt really strongly this week that we needed to stop teaching him. After our most recent lesson, the Spirit confirmed to us that he's just not ready at this time. Well, Sister Brooks and I have never dropped an investigator, so it was a first for both of us! But it went really well and we're all still friends! We continue to pray that his heart will one day soften and that he'll truly desire to act on the message.

  A funny from yesterday: we went to an apartment complex to find a potential. There were so many people outside grilling, so we talked with them. A few weeks ago we found an ex-mormon in the complex. Yesterday, the first lady we talked to said she used to be a member. We were shocked. As we walked away, we noted how this complex is just full of ex-mormons. LO and BEHOLD, the next guy we talked to said HE was an ex-mormon. We were shocked! There must be something in that complex...

Transfers have come and we'll both be staying here in OHYSA! But there are a lot of changes throughout the mission. All of the spanish zones and districts have combined with the english and so now we're all together! This big change is so exciting and it allows us to become ONE as a mission and not to be separated by language programs anymore! I'm excited to see the unity that this change will bring about! I'm also pumped to get to know more missionaries!

  Like I said earlier, because colleges have been ending their semester, we're having to change our finding techniques. We're really trying to get more involved with members and help bring others back into the fold. We are trying to do splits with our sisters in the ward and we actually got some good response yesterday. We hope that by bringing members out, we can better reach those who have been lost for awhile or who are really wanting to come back!

  I'm grateful to still be in the YSA ward! This past transfer has just been so special and I LOVE being here! I want to share a thought I had from my studies the other day about repentance. It comes from Elder Andersen's talk from October 2009, entitled, "Repent..that I may heal you". 10/10 would recommend you go read that! One of my favorite quotes from it is,

  "The invitation to repent is rarely a voice of chastisement but rather a loving appeal to turn around and to “re-turn” toward God."
 
 I know I'm often hard on myself, as we all tend to be. If we're feeling chastised and beat up, push those thoughts out. That's NOT from Heavenly Father! When we feel happily motivated to re-turn to Him and strive to improve ourselves, that's what true repentance means. So just remember that Heavenly Father loves you and that His LOVE is what should motivate us to come back to Him, not fear or discouragement!

Love you all! Talk to you next month!


Sister Burton
2500 N. Bristol St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706

A photo with Fawn (pink shirt) at FHE last week.

Just remember...you're never forgotten.

Sister Brooks and I got these cute "thinker" plants from Sprouts last week.

Fish Taco Friday with some Sistas!

Went out with a member, Emily.

Went to a yummy Greek restaurant with Mary.

Of course, we had to stop and smell the roses!

Our little lesson with Maeve.