The One With the Baptisms - November 2nd, 2015

Hello po!

This week has been pretty dandy :) 2 baptisms!! hoorah!! I'm so happy for them ^_^ Glocelle and Waken are awesome. Then Maribel is set for next week (she'd only been to church 3 times b/c of the bagyo and she needs to have gone 4). 

Also, included is a picture from the baptism :) we're all looking at different cameras because there was like 700 of them. And if you look closely you can see a ZL and a Sister Naua in the back. Anywho, I wore the most Snow White -iest outfit I could find because Halloween.

Guess what! I'll be old soon. Weird... 9 more days and I'll not be a teenager any longer. Ano kahit?? Also I met my mission grandma last week :) she's nice.

I've been in a real "let's make all the things" kind of mood lately. So I made snickerdoodles in our toaster oven last night, and they were pretty not-awful. They probs would've been better if I had baking soda, and actual butter instead of chocolate margarine... but it's alright :) Maybe I'll try chocolate chip someday :) I also made a piano (I'm learning piano now). It's paper, so, you know, it doesn't actually make sounds. But I figure it'll help me with fluency and all that. I've named it Joshua to keep me motivated to actually learn how to play <3

Being on a mission has really made me realize all the things I want to do with my life. Like, I actually want to learn how to play instruments and sew all the things and travel and do ballroom and irish and start voice lessons again and... lahat! Everything! And... I'm excited for college?? What?? Anywho. I'm not quite so apathetic anymore. Just a -little bit- apathetic.

Also this week is transfer week (short transfer :P). I'm pretty sure I'm staying b/c follow up training, but who knows? I want to stay though. I love Villasis :) We have cute little old ladies here too, and they make us feel like the sons of Mosiah in Alma 27:4, "as though [we] were angels sent from God". We'll ask how they're doing and they say "So happy! Because Heavenly Father sent you here to visit me!" And I love them. And the kids too :) Like Malyn and Jennilyn and Jenny and all the cute little boys in our ward :)

Anywho... iyan lang :) not a ton to say this week ^_^

The One With the Nephites - October 25, 2015

Hello!! If anyone was wondering, I'm still alive :) except the storm took every bit of cool air with it and it's SO. HOT. 

AGAIN.

On the upside, one of my favorite days is coming up this week! :D Happy Halloween!! I don't get to dress up though. Sad. BUT we do have 2 baptisms that day :) and that's even better! I'm excited and they're excited.

Also I'm almost done with training ^_^ 2 weeks early b/c short transfer!! :D HA!! It's helpful, but I just really don't care for training all that much :) 

This week was Sister Vanisi's birthday, so I had to wake up at 5:30 to make Chocolate Things to surprise her with. I'm perfectly fine with cooking for people, but no one should ever have to suffer waking up at the "buttcrack of dawn" as Shelley and Wilcock would so eloquently put it. The Chocolate Things turned out good though :) it's chocolate pancake mix that we fry just enough that it's still gooey inside. Pretty tasty :) except I forgot to tell comp o' mine not to dump out my frying oil, so... I don't have any more oil to fry things in, which is disappointing. But she was just trying to be helpful by washing the dishes, so it's alright.

I have time to cook things now!! Happy day! Cause they have us in at 8:30, so I have a lot of time for making things. And I successfully made alfredo sauce <3 flour, oil, canned milk, garlic bread powder, shredded "cheese" (they call it cheese but it's more processed than my hair is). Anywho. Not too shabby, eh? I also eat a ridiculous amount of peanut butter here. Why didn't I like peanut butter before? Why do I like it here??

So the other day a trike driver stopped us and (as far as I understood and from what comp translated) he was like "Hey sisters, where are your other three companions?" and we're like "...what other companions? The other sisters?" And he was like "No, the three guys!" So Sister Antenorcruz asked what he was talking about and he said he saw us walking with three big guys before. So... we're thinking probably the 3 Nephites have got our backs. Cause missionary work.

Speaking of Nephites, I've been reading in Alma this week (still...) and I really liked Alma 43:45. The whole chapter, really. It talks about how the Nephites were defending their homes, liberties, families, and their freedom to worship, and how that was a righteous cause worth fighting for. It got me thinking- are we fighting for things that are worth fighting for? The world is so crazy sometimes, and we get caught up in the little things that don't matter so much. And Alma 48: 11-17 lays out the attributes of Moroni, "a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren." He was firm in the faith of Christ, and did all that he could and needed to to defend that faith. "Yea, verily, verily, I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." So... where are we? :)

Love you all at least all the muchness!! 

-Sister Burton

The One With the Bagyo (Typhoon) - October 20, 2015

Hello po! Storms are crazy. But I'm still alive :) Anyway, church was cancelled on Sunday. And we were put on lockdown and I had NO IDEA WHAT TO DO. I WAS SO BORED. And no power either, so no music for us. Mostly I sat on the floor and sang songs by myself and read a little bit. Or a lottle bit. Then the same thing on Monday but they let us go to 7-11 for a little while to charge our phones and we went to the market to by groceries so we wouldn't starve and stuff. Then last night they texted us and said there was a flood warning, so all the girls in the apartments downstairs came up to stay with us, then like 20 minutes later they texted us again and said the elders were coming to evacuate us to Urdaneta. So we stayed the night in Urdaneta and now we're back home and dry :)

I still miss non-EFY music a lot but it's ayos-lang. Sometimes our neighbors listen to Journey and the Eagles and Imagine Dragons because Heavenly Father loves me. Tender mercies are a thing <3 

Also kids still love me, which is cute. On the way to Maribel's house I usually have at least 2 kids on each arm and one wrapped around my waist, which makes it a little difficult to walk. It reminds me of my mga anak at NWA :) ha. Recess was always an adventure.

Oh! Speaking of adventures, I passed my 100 day mark for this adventure last week :) cool, eh? I'm a survivor!! Haha ;)

However, that means I've also gone at least 100 days without the option of chimchims for dinner (or lunch or breakfast or elevensies). That being said, will someone go to Los Hermanos and order a chimichanga for me? And then eat the whole thing in one sitting and then feel a little bit bad about yourself but not even care because you know you can rest happily in a food coma when you get home? Thanks <3 I really appreciate it!

We're really close on baptisms ^_^ Glocelle and Waken are coming to church every week and their interviews are supposed to be this weekend! They're really excited, so I'm really excited :) So hopefully 2 baptisms next week! And Maribel is really good too :) so close!! Hooplah! (Sounds like a lot of- Hooplah! I said, sounds like a- Hooplah! Hooplah! Hoop- *brick*)

Sometimes I make Spongebob references and no one gets them. So when I sing that the stars at night are dull and dim whenever they have to be over dumb old stupid Texas, I'm pretty sure they legitimately think I hate the entire state of Texas. Oops.

Anyway... so we have a new schedule now which has us in by 8:30. Which is kind of nice :) No one wants us there past then anyway :P Also toasted siopao is fantastic.

Oh, and I found a nice little nugget of counsel the other day during Personal Study. It's in Alma 17:10 :) "And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with His Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted." That second part is really important. How often do we ask the Lord for help and then not accept it? "Heavenly Father what do I do? This is really hard!"  And He says, "It's alright, don't worry. I have a plan for you." And then we're dumb and say "No, but you don't understand! This is hard! I don't know what's going to happen!" What? SO DUMB. We just throw away His counsel and comfort. Life is really hard sometimes. Duh! That's how we grow! It's okay that we don't know what's going to happen exactly. That's how life is! So when life seems crazy and you're feeling overwhelmed, just remember that it's for your good. But ALSO remember that you can be at peace even through the hard times. We have a perfect Father in Heaven who wants to comfort us no matter what we're going through. But it's up to us to be comforted :)

Anywho, Philippines life is still good :) storms make it not so hot here too. My area is awesome and sometimes I hold small animals. And I have a new best friend named Kelly-Dog. I LOVE Kelly-Dog! ^_^ She's always so happy to see me and runs up to me with her whole body shaking because she can't wag just her tail and she lets me pet her and I just love her so much <3 

*Bonus scripture Alma 26:2 - Can you tell what blessings the Lord has given you recently? If you can't, look harder. There's a lot, I promise :)

Iyan-lang :) Love you all!! 

-Sister Burton (buhay pa)

The One With the Kept Commitment - October 11, 2015

GenCon was the best :) I loved all of it! I really loved Elder Holland's and Elder Foster's talks ^_^ They gave me the feels x100. And also Elder Durrant's talk about ponderizing :)

Maribel came to church this week!! I'm so happy! We've been teaching her since my first week here. I was actually really worried we'd have to drop her soon cause she hasn't been coming to church, and I didn't want to give up on her :) and she came to GenCon yesterday!! Happy day!

Another thing that makes me happy is what I call the Banal na Sandwich. It's peanut butter on one side, nutella on the other, with strawberry jam in the middle, and it's all toasted to toasty nummy perfection. I also drink what may be near-lethal amounts of MoguMogu and I regret nothing <3 it's my favorite. And Mango Tang. Why they missed out on the prime opportunity to call it Tango I'll never know.

So pretty much I'm tired like 78% of the time. At this point I'm kind of hoping I'll find out that I've got some weird sleep disorder that requires that I get at least ten hours of sleep a night and that's why I'm so sleepy all the time. And then I'll have a valid excuse for when I sleep for 11 hours with a 3 hour nap around four o clock.

 

I wrote "Our Search for Happiness" in my notes for things to include in this email... but I don't remember why. It's really good though :) I finished it this week. Maybe you should read it and figure out what it was I wanted to share.

Oh, and whenever people are talking about neighbors/family/friends who have moved to America I always picture early 1900s America, not modern-day America. Sometimes I forget how time works. It's fine.

So short rant, I really dislike the phrase "You'd be prettier if..." because there are so many people everywhere who have super low self esteem and never feel like they're good enough, and there are so many conflicting views on how you should look. "You'd be prettier if you (wore more/less makeup) (had shorter/longer hair) (lost/gained weight) (etc.)". Whatever it is, just remember that it isn't your job to please other people! You're beautiful just the way you are and if someone tells you otherwise you can throw an egg at their face ^_^

Also I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation :) One of the recent converts in our ward just passed away. He's a funny old man named Brother Virgilio :) I bet he can see now and is laughing at me as I learn Tagalog and a little bit of Ilokano and hold people's baby goats :) I'm pretty sure my life is a sitcom on the other side of the veil. And my future kids are like MOM WHY. The end :) 

As always, mahal ko kayo! Siyemps na kambing. That's totes magotes sa tagalog. I know, cause I thought of it myself. Please enjoy these pictures of me and David Bowie.

-Sister Paige Laretta Burton

The One With the Music - October 5th, 2015

Good morning!

This week hasn't been too terribly eventful. But that's okay :) 

I went on exchanges this week, which was pretty cool. I accidentally got mixed up on the lessons so I shared a big long scripture about baptism with the lady that Sis. Smith was dropping that lesson... oops :P haha but it worked out because it turned out to be the passage that Sis. Smith had assigned her to read that one and then forgot! Gotta love the Spirit, yeah? :)

We also have a member in our ward who just got back from his mission not this last wednesday but the one before. He's great to work with cause he's still all about missionary work :) yasss.

We get to watch GenCon this upcoming weekend! I'm so excited :D I hope y'all have enjoyed it! Women's session was really good. I liked what one of the speakers (don't remember who) said about how there are too many good things in life to focus on the bad.

Also I like how if you watch the choir you can kind of tell which ones are choir kids ;)

So yesterday we were waiting for one of the members so we sat in on the rest of their mission prep class. Then they asked us to do a role play for extending commitments. I. Hate. Role plays. Anyway... they said I could teach in english and I was like "YASSS I love english" But as it turns out, teaching in english is difficult now. Like ano kahit (that is, "what even", not to be confused with kahit ano, which is "anything"). So yeah.

Apparently there's no Dr. Pepper in Urdaneta :'( they have it in Manila but not here. And that saddens me deeply. So for those of you in the Provo/Orem area, please go to Sodalicious and order a Southern Gentleman and drink it for me. Salamat <3

I really miss country music. And I didn't even listen to that much country music before. But we do listen to Nashville Tribute Band sometimes which makes me happy :) 

Booorrrn

Bo-oooorrrn

Born in Bethlehemmmmmmmmmmmm

Also the other day the neighbors of one of our investigators were blaring Open Arms by Journey and I got the feels. Because Journey. And also my ballroom days.

Speaking of feels! I got a Starry Night journal and it's beautiful and it gives me the feels every day because Vincent and the Doctor.

Yep :) mahal kita! Please enjoy my journal drawings