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| Gosh, I love this sister so much. Training her was such a precious gift and I'll never forget the memories that we made together! She means the world to me and I know that Sister Wang will be such a great missionary! I miss her already but I know that the Lord has great plans in store for her and Brighton! |
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| One last district meeting/lunch in Brighton with amazing missionaries! |
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| Sister Lowry and I! |
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| AddI'm not gonna lie and say that someone painted a picture of me and Sister Wang but it sure does look like the two of us ;) It's a great painting representing missionary work! |
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| The two cute Scottish STLs and Sister Wang and I. So sad to be leaving them. |
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| Such an amazing lady! She's the one in the purple and her little boy is on the sofa chair. She is someone Sister Wang and I got to teach my last day in Brighton and she is amazing! I have good hopes for her and her family :D Sister Wang will continue to teach her with her new companion. |
week! It was quite eventful and quite fun-filled with miracles,
laughter, and tears as well. Sister Wang and I debated on what to do
for our preparation day last week but didn't really have any clue on
what we could do. We talked to our district to see if we could do a
district preparation day but since there was so much to do, we weren't
able to, so we all decided that we'd be doing it the following week
(little did I know that it would be my last one in Brighton). That
evening Sister Wang and I had two appointments and really looked
forward to meeting with them but as traveled the two homes, one of the
people ended up not being home and the other person gave us a fake
address. Not to worry though because we did the best the make the most
out of the time we had and went to a returning friend's home. This
returning friend expressed interest in being taught again and we were
able to speak to him and his daughter. As we sat there in his home,
they had a huge German shepherd puppy that came up to us and barked
very loudly. Sister Wang nearly jumped out of her seat. The puppy was
looking to play with us so we had to ignore it but wow, his barks were
boisterous. We survived that evening without the dog wanting to jump
all over us and managed to talk to our friend and share some of our
message. That following day, before our last district meeting, we were
preparing a presentation on "Developing the faith to find" when
suddenly the phone rang! President asked me some questions about the
upcoming transfers and sled if I would be willing to help out and move
into a trio in Staines. It took me some time for my head to wrap
around the idea that I could actually be moving for my last transfer.
I told him, I'd go anywhere the Lord needed me to go and that was it.
I broke the news to Sister Wang and she was very sad. Poor girl, she
didn't expect it to happen just like me. We traveled to Sutton to have
our exchange with the sister Training leader, Sister Couper, and her
companion and it was bitter sweet. I loved the many different things I
learned on that exchange but it was sad to know that this was probably
my last time I would be seeing these two Scottish lassies. While on
the exchange, Sister Cassidy and I got to go and do service for a
member. We were able to help with some of the house and the Zone
leaders and us were able to assist in helping with putting up shelves,
etc. We came to find out that one of the Zone leaders would be moving
to the Staines Zone as well in the same ward so it made me feel better
to know that I wasn't alone and that there were missionaries that we
knew. The Brighton ward and district for me has truly become my
family. Sister Wang and I and the elders that served in the Brighton
ward grew and learned so much from the challenges that came our way
and also rejoiced together in the miracles that we saw. Our past
weekend ended with us missionaries holding a football/sports night and
we were able to have some returning friends and former investigators
show up which was really good! As I came to the Brighton ward for the
last time, I truly came to realise just how much I love these people
and how wonderful it was to be in Brighton for some of my mission.
Sister Wang and I saw so many miracles my last couple of days. We were
heading to the chapel to finish up the progress record and when we got
to the chapel, we saw a note on the door that said on the front,
"Important." In it, a guy had written that he was from Spain and that
He wanted to be able to speak with missionaries who spoke Spanish. On
the letter, it included his number and his address from Brighton. What
a cool miracle! Thanks to my two years of Spanish from high school, I
was able to pick out some phrases and got the idea of the message so
we called the Spanish elders and gave them the referral. I've never
really seen that before and it just goes to show at God is really
preparing people. On my last day in Brighton, we got to be able to
teach Philomenia! I'd been waiting for this day for some time. We set
up a teaching time with her and on Sunday, we asked the relief society
if any of them could come with us. One of the YSA sisters who had just
recently returned from her mission, raised her hand, and said she
could go with us to go and teach Philomenia. The best part about it
all was that Philomenia was from Ghana and this other sister was from
Ghana! The member joined us the morning of the teaching and Philomenia
was in. As we shared the message with her, Philomenia would ask us
some questions and she seemed to find answers to what she had asked
about. She was very open-minded, accepted the invite of baptism, and
said too that her daughter was pleading to come to church the other
day! Once again, God is truly preparing the heart of His children. I
was sad that it would be my last time to teach her but I know that
Philomenia can make it and I know she will continue to be taught by
Sister Wang and her new companion. I packed my bags, got everything
ready, and said a painful goodbye to my dear sister, Sister Wang. She
is an angel and I'm grateful the Lord gave me the opportunity to serve
with her. I can imagine that Sister Wang and I were in the pre-earth
life and eagerly anticipated the time that we got to serve together.
Within a blink of an eye, it's now over and I'm sad but I'm so
grateful that we got to learn from each other and grow from the
experiences that we had. As I got to Staines, I met my two sweet
sisters, Sister Manage from Sri Lanka and Sister Chand from Fiji.
Wanna know what that means?! I've now officially not had one American
companion over the course of my entire mission. I guess it's not
something to brag about but I think it's just so cool that all of them
are not even from the same place. I had Sister Schmidt from Germany,
Sister Hamann from Australia, Sister Nguyen from Vietnam, Sister
Fromgren from Norway, Sister Wang from China, and now Sister Manage
from Sri Lanka and Sister Chand from Fiji. I told all of them to let
me come visit them and they agreed so I think I might just be
traveling the world in the near future :) As I arrived to Staines,
everything was very familiar to me. They are familiar to me because
Staines is the first chapel I came to when I first arrived in the
field and also, we've had several mission leadership conferences there
so it wasn't all too foreign for me. That evening, Sister Chand and
Sister Manage told me that we'd be having a Philippiano enrichment
Night with the relief society and it was so fun. A member actually
ended up bring her non-member friend which was really great and I hear
that the Staines ward is very good to do missionary work. We have
several member referrals that we are actually going to be teaching
this week and I'm looking forward to being able to serve around these
people! Overall, this week has been so eventful but also so wonderful!
I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Burtis
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| My new companions: In the middle is Sister Manage-from Sri Lanka/(Also grew up in Manchester) On the right is Sister Chand-from Fiji! So much fun :) |
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