The One Where Everyone Freezes - Dec. 20, 2015

Hello po dearests! This week has been cold :) I love it! It rained for like 2 days straight and I was actually cold! I mean, I've been cold here before but that's because of the aircon at the stake center so that doesn't count. But we got home on Wednesday night and I wore a hoodie and it was the best <3

Also! I finished the Book of Mormon this week :) first time on the mish! Hoorah! Finishing the Book of Mormon is awesome, especially when your family is the best and sends you Jaffa Cakes :) Scriptures and Jaffa Cakes should go hand-in-hand, because scriptures make you happy, and Jaffa Cakes taste like happiness. Like the feeling you get when you take the first bite of shepherds pie! Just like a hug for your soul :3

Speaking of food, the promise that if you open your mouth it'll be filled is so true ;) haha! SO many dinner appointments this week! Ano ba?? Anyway. It's great.

So remember two years ago when I went to the Messiah sing-in practice and I was crazy lost and couldn't sight sing to save my life? Still bad at reading music. BUT. The song we sang at that particular practice was For Unto Us a Child is Born, and guess what MoTab sang at the Christmas Devotional? Yep! So my kabahays downloaded it and it's all they listen to. I think at first it was one of those songs where you listen to it cause you think it's silly, and before you know it you know every single word. At any rate, we've listened to it on repeat at basically every opportunity, and we're ready for the sing-in now. SO READY.

Also there's a Peanuts movie? Why was I not told about this?? Y'all are supposed to tell me about important things that happen :P I had to find out from a Happy Meal board at McDo. But I forgive you.

In happy news, Malyn and Manilyn are getting baptized this weekend! Hooray! Manilyn is Waken's little sister, and she's awesome :) and Malyn is... Malyn :) haha it's been a long time in the making but it's finally here! And she's SO excited! I made her a dress for the occasion :) I have to fix it though, I'm still way bad at guessing neck hole sizes... 

Also yesterday Sister Montenegro was like "Hey, recite the Young Womens theme" and I was like "Ha yeah, okay." Cause after reciting it every week for 6 years I know it by heart, right? So I started off "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. We will stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places, as we strive to live the young women values, which are: Faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. Ask and ye shall-- WAIT." Missions change you :P haha! 

Love you all!

-Sister Burton

(I'd send awesome pictures but my card reader has passed on :P)

The One With The Truck - Dec 13, 2015

Hello po everyone! 

This week has been great :) even though I'm sickly so my brain feels like mud and coughing isn't fun. But CHRISTMAS! I love Christmas :) Christmas Conference was wonderful and I love everything AND WE WATCHED PRINCE OF EGYPT AND MY HEART CRIED FOR JOY. And the Christmas Devotional was wonderful too :) someday I'll audition for MoTab, I think. Will I make it? Ha. Probs not. But I'll audition :)

Apparently the other sisters' investigators call me Sister Mahinhin... haha! One of them has a huge crush on me. He's six. Ain't that just the way.

Adventure/Miracle story! Let me preface this by saying that the bread truck is my FAVORITE truck. Heavenly Father sends it our way whenever we're punted a lot so that I can get a chocolate crinkle (or two or three...) to cheer myself up. So this last Saturday we had to get to MCM but we were in our far area and it was dark already and we couldn't get a trike. So we're standing there waiting and I jokingly said "Hey maybe we'll see the bread truck!" cause we'd gotten snacks from the bread truck earlier. So we're standing there waiting and then THE BREAD TRUCK DRIVES BY. And the fellowshipper we were working with stops it and got some cookies, then the bread truck lady was like "Hey! Hop in, we'll give you a ride!" and they took us to the church :) we were like 20 minutes late because we were stopped every so often by people wanting yummy pastries, but it was a Christmas Miracle :) 

The end :)

The One With The Week - Dec.6, 2015

Still alive :) this week has been weird. I was asked if I'm related to Cliff Burton from Metallica... I was like "Um... I dunno. Probably." Ha :) also the mosquitoes are back and it's #theworst. But I'll live. My hair is growing, which is good, except I have a yucky mullet but the rest of my hair isn't long enough for me to even it out. So pony tails every day for like the next month :) haha! 

The work is still going good. Haha one of the little Tatays in our ward was talking to us the other day and he was saying that I need to marry a man who can provide 3 meals a day AND snacks in between. I'll have to keep that in mind, I guess. :P Haha he's also way old and was saying "I want to die soon, cause I'm too old. I think I want to die soon." and we're like "... yeah, okay, Tay."  and then when we left we said "Take care!" and he said "I just told you I want to die and you're telling me to take care??" He's a funny old man :P

Anyway, miracles really do happen every day :) this whole week we've been walang-investigators, then yesterday Heavenly Father was like "Here, have THREE!" so that's good :) they're cool. I like them.

So I really like coloring books now. The super intense complicated ones, ya know? And I was thinking, it's a lot like the work (or life, really). Sometimes it seems like there's SO MUCH to do, and it's really overwhelming, but if you take it one step at a time, piece by piece, you make something really pretty and you just build on what you have already. Iyan lang :) keep being wonderful, you wonderful people :)

Enjoy these pictures of a sour-thing tree and the things we do when we're bored.

The One With The Leading - Nov 29, 2015

Top o' the mornin'! 

Let's see... this week has been... good. I wanted to use a better adjective but I can't think of one. It's been good. We had exchanges on Wednesday, and I led the area for the first time, which is pretty exciting. I guess technically I've led before, but that was with A-Cruz so she already knew everything anyway :P haha. Anyway, Tuesday night we met with the other sisters at CB mall, then Sis. Leyte and I went back to Villasis. So Wednesday I led and we got punted a lot but it's okay because we also OYMed a lot :) and I made Salted Caramel Cloud 9 cookies and they were AWESOME. Then Thursday we went to Manaoag. And it took like 2 hours, then we got to the house, I got A-Cruz, and we made the trek back. AGGE. Sometimes I really dislike long rides. But it was airconditioned so I guess it's alright. I bought cheese -REAL cheese!- last week and made grilled cheese sandwiches and it was heaven. And Kelly-Dog had puppies!! They're perfect. And remember Ham the pig from next door? He's a girl. And also had babies :)

Also we taught a funny old man on Friday. His name is Antonio, and he LOVES the Bible, which is great :) Except one problem- he basically can't hear me when I talk. Ha. My voice is too high, so he can't hear it very well >_< it's like high school all over again. 

Aaaanyway. As you may have noticed by now, the Church has a new... what's the word? Christmas thing :) good enough. Initiative!! And it's really great, because #ASaviorIsBorn just for us :) A lot of the time we focus on the fact that Christ died for us, but how often do we reflect on the fact that He was born for us? He was born here on earth and lived for us, showing us the path to Heavenly Father. He was our perfect example of how to treat others and how to become really, truly happy :) With this Christmas season right at the door, take a little time (or a lottle time) to think about why our Savior was born and how He lived for you ^_^

The One With The Fairy Tale - Nov 22, 2015

Good morning po!

This week hasn't been too terribly eventful, so not a bunch to report... but I did learn how to make lugaw. Well, cheater lugaw. It's cream of chicken soup with rice and soy sauce and calamansi. It'd be better with cilantro but I haven't seen cilantro in forever and a half. Also I made more cookies. I love cookies. I know we probs won't need to eat in heaven because immortal and stuff, but I hope we'll still eat there anyway because I really love food. Except seafood. And smelly green mush (sorry mum). 

Anyway, this week has definitely been a bit of a patience tester, because... well, I love Malyn, but sometimes AGGE. She's a handful (bucketful, poolful...). But she's getting a lot better at praying, and she's excited to "apat simbahan" so she can get baptized. She's an adventure for sure, but it's okay cause she's helping me develop Christlike attributes ;)

Also this week I've been thinking about The Princess and the Goblin. There's a part in the book where Princess Irene really wants to show her great great grandmother to her friend Curdie. But when she goes to introduce them to each other, Curdie can't see the grandmother. When Princess Irene asks why he wasn't able to see her, the grandmother says something to the effect of "He didn't see me because he didn't want to see me. Even if he had seen me, he wouldn't have believed it. He would've passed it off as a dream." And I thought about how that's so applicable to us. There are so many times that Heavenly Father blesses us in our lives and we just choose not to recognize it. We take for granted the many blessings He gives us every day and wonder why He doesn't play a bigger role in our lives. Silly, isn't it? It's up to us to want to believe. It's up to us to have the faith to look for the things that happen every day that are blessings in disguise. So let's try this week to have a bit more faith and really SEE :)

Much love, 

Sister Burton!

The One with the Malawakang Punting (and the birthday) - Nov 15, 2015

This week has been ridiculous :P pretty much Sunday through Tuesday we were punted on almost every lesson we'd planned. Then Wednesday was good cause we got a new investigator for my birthday! Then Thursday through Sunday were fairly unproductive too... it was weird. Like, we've never had this many plans fall through. Also sometimes we get to their houses to teach a part member family and the investigators leave... Tatay George saw us see him and escaped out the back before we got to the door. Eesh. Anyway, this week will be better :)

The language is coming a little better, but sometimes people say stuff that I would normally understand but I'm just like "I can't *plllbbbbt* understand *pppllllbbbttt* your accent *plllbbbbbbttttt*" so they think I don't speak tagalog at all. But it's fine, I'm making progress X) Anywho...

I'm really good at making cookies now. So I made chocolate chip cookies for my birthday :D speaking of which, my kabahays surprised me with loud noises and decorations and cake when I woke up on Wednesday. Twas fun :) except I tasted like morning and looked like death. But I had chocolate cake for breakfast :) 

Anyway, something I really liked from my studies this week was Helaman 5:6-7 where Helaman is talking to his sons, Nephi and Lehi, about their namesakes and how he wants them to be good like the first Nephi and Lehi :) and it's really important for us to remember that when we're baptized, we take Christ's name upon us. So we should always be trying to live in a way that we honor the name that we've taken upon ourselves :)

Yep yep!

Stay classy

-Sister Paige Laretta Burton

The One With The Opera - Nov 8, 2015

They were playing opera in National Bookstore last P-day and it made my heart so happy <3 I think it was Barber of Seville? Anyway, I love opera. Someday I'll be the Queen of the Night. It's fine.

So yeah, still alive!! This week has been pretty good. Pretty hot though. My 5 years of Princess Festival did not prepare me for this. Nope nope nope! Also my body was like "Hey know what'd be fun? Getting sick. Because that's the BEST!!" so I've felt a bit yucky and my brain has been mush and I've sounded like a dying cow. But other than that, good week :)

Maribel is getting baptized this week!! Hooray!! It's been a long time in the making, but we survived!! 

Also I'm staying in Villasis and Sis. Antenorcruz is still my comp so she's stuck with me for another 8 weeks :) Ha!

The ants still don't leave us alone. I went to make a peanut butter sandwich the other day and there were ants in my peanut butter. INSIDE THE JAR. 5 of them. Like, EXCUSE YOU, WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT. Anywho. Ants are dumb.

Sister Naua and Sister Smith got transferred, which means we've lost our altos. And that reminded me of a thing. Sometimes we don't feel like our part matters all that much, and we feel like we don't make a difference. But there is always someone listening, someone who needs the richness that we bring to the song that is life :) So when you're feeling like you can't do much, or you feel like giving up because you aren't needed, just remember that the melody isn't all that great without the harmony :) We need the altos, we need the tenors, we need the basses, not just the sopranos. Because otherwise it's just a lot of high notes without anything to bring life to it :) Just keep on being you, because you bring a lot more joy to people's lives than you might realize ^_^ Iyan lang.