tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9503061525507860582024-03-12T18:30:07.742-07:00Sister Anya Burtis- England London South Mission Anyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597596049388930167noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-16753588670530443912016-11-25T14:33:00.002-08:002016-11-25T14:33:58.245-08:00There is never really an end to Eternal Joy<div>
I still remember the moment our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson under the direction of the Lord announced to the world that an age change for missionaries would take place. "Today I am pleased to announce that able, worthy young women who have the desire to serve may be recommended for missionary service beginning at age 19, instead of age 21." I still remember to this day the excitement that I felt as a 16 year old, picking up my phone, calling my dad and mom and my friends to let them know that I wanted to serve and couldn't wait. Who knew that one small decision could change the entire way you look at life. I know that the lessons that I learned from my mission are lessons I could have never learned anywhere else. It's pretty hard to not just list out the many endless lessons and miracles that I experienced but as I reflected over the course of my mission, I realized there were some key principles that I needed to learn and that stood out to me.</div>
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I believe that the people we meet at the time that we meet them is no coincidence at all. God has a plan in store for all of us. Little did I know of this plan when I said goodbye to my dear family 18 months ago and awaited the plane ride that would take me to an unknown country. After four flights and little sleep, I wondered to myself, "What am I getting myself into?" I was blessed throughout the course of my mission to have been with 7 different companions. I was suprised to realize at the beginning of my last transfer that none of them were from Utah. It's quite rare to say that you didn't have a companion from Utah or even the states itself. Sister Schmidt (my trainer) from Germany. Sister Hamann from Australia. Sister Nguyen from Vietnam. Sister Fromgren from Norway. Sister Wang from China. Sister Chand from Fiji. And Sister Manage from Sri Lanka/Manchester. How blessed I was to be with each one of them. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for putting up with a crazy, silly companion like me. I can't count the many moments where we'd be treking through rain storms, crying because our friends no longer wanted to meet with us or were facing opposition, cooking and laughing about the silliest of things, and simply loving each other despite having been 24/7 with each other. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I must have had the first pick in Heaven to choose my companions. All of them each radiated the light of Christ and had a lesson for me to learn. Each area I was placed in- Redruth, Clapham, Brighton, and Staines carried different cultures, people, friends that we taught, wards, and lessons for us to learn. I loved each moment of each area. Though some days were harder than others, I know that the mapped out plan that God had for me of my mission was made perfectly and made right. </div>
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As much as it was hard, I've learned that Agency plays a big role in the work whether it's with us or other people. It was so hard sometimes to not get frustrated at the moments when many people would say no to us or reject us. Many moments that I'm sure my companions can agree to, we found ourselves asking quite a few times, "Why must they have their agency?" I understand though that, without Agency, even we missionaries cannot progress. We cannot make our own choices and govern ourselves. The rewards and blessings for living the Gospel wouldn't be as sweet to us if we were given no choice. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf says it perfectly in <i>Fourth Floor, Last Door (Oct. 2016, General Conference), </i>"God will invite, persuade. God will reach out tirelessly with love and inspiration and encouragement. But God will never compel- that would undermine His great plan for our eternal growth." </div>
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I learned not only the importance of Agency but I also came to understand the importance of obedience. Around the halfway mark of my mission, my mom emailed me a quote which makes a lot of sense. "Obedience brings blessings. Exact Obedience brings miracles." I testify that this quote is true. I was definitely not perfect on my mission but I strived to be. It wasn't easy but as my companions and I set goals to overcome our weaknesses, we felt the hand of the Lord helping us and more importantly, we witnessed so many miracles. I always thought of miracles to be consisting of someone who was in a major car accident and walked away with only a scratch or bruise. I thought a miracle consisted of someone battling cancer and overcoming it or perhaps someone willing to first pay tithing and sacrifice in that sense and then receive more funds back than they had planned. I never really thought that even the littlest of moments of someone answering their door to us, or saying yes to a return appointment, could be counted as a miracle. It was though. God promised our mission a season of miracles. A harvest. And oh what joy fills my heart to know that I got to be a part of it! I will never forget those moments when at the end of an evening, I got down on my knees, said a prayer, and felt the spirit confirm to me of the many miracles I got to witness. I know that my life will continue to bring so many miracles and I know that as we all reflect on what the Lord has done for us, we will be overcome with such gratitude and joy! "Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." (Alma 26:16). </div>
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I will never forget the things that this mission has done for me. Who knew the opportunities of walking, running, stressing, praying, weeping, laughing, teaching, declaring repentance, smiling, hoping, repenting, forgiving, and loving could bring you to being so much closer to God than you could have ever imagined. If anyone was to ask me if they should go on a mission whether when they are older or younger, I would have to simply say, "Yes. You definitely should. You wouldn't regret it either." I understand there are different circumstances in life that might make us question if we should go or not but if ever the Lord gives you an inkling to go on a mission, don't hesitate. I promise that the blessings of a mission are great! I love this work. I couldn't imagine my life without it. I know that this Church is the true church and I cannot deny that. As I drew closer to the Saviour throughout my mission, I realized that no man cannot be without him. He is our light, our friend, our brother, our Saviour. The atonement became so much greater to me than it ever has been before. I know that Christ is aware of every little pain, suffering, or trial that we go through. Though some may not recognize it, He will always be at our side, weeping with us, carrying us, and comforting us. I was grateful to be able to go on a mission because it helped me to realize the pathway that the Saviour walked. I cannot fully comprehend the suffering He had to go through but I know from the fraction of His pathway that I walked, I learned so much and rejoice in the knowledge of my Saviour. The Book of Mormon is a true testament of Him. It gave me a great lighter and conversion to find out that this Gospel is true. It's what got me started on this path of discipleship and I will do everything to continue to stay on this path. I love you all and thank you for the support and love that you showed to me throughout my mission! I could not have done it without you and your great love! </div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Anya Michelle Burtis </div>
Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-43185646978958855932016-11-25T14:30:00.002-08:002016-11-25T14:30:35.079-08:00A thanksgiving season filled with miracles<div>
I love this time of the year where we can reflect on the things we are grateful for and to be able to realize the many blessings that we have received. As I reflected on this past week, it was one to remember for sure! Last week and this week has been great! We were able to work with a lot of the members and help them to see the importance of missionary work. What is great is that we have an upcoming Christmas party in the Staines Ward so Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I have worked to invite lots of people to that and invite the members to invite their friends. We have a feeling its going to be very successful! The past weekend, we got to see many miracles. Last week, while working in Stanwell, two of our appointments fell through that we had looked forward to teaching so we used the best of our time and went and contacted some potentials. We had knocked on a lady's door and she opened up. We asked her if she was Claire but she told us that Claire had moved. However, the best part of this amazing miracle was that she mentioned to us that she was Claire's mum. So with that, we got to see if she was interested and she was! Plus, she gave us Claire's new address so we were really excited. We will be able to teach her next week which I am looking forward to. This past weekend, we were suppose to have a dinner appointment with our Bishop and his family on Saturday but something came up for them so Sister Holt called us and asked if we would like to join them in the Thanksgiving meal that they would be having this past Sunday. Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I traveled our way over to their area and got to have an american thanksgiving meal! It was truly wonderful! It was fun to see the looks on Sister Manage's and Sister Chand's face as they saw all the different types of food that was there, seeing that this was their first thanksgiving meal. This past week, we got to see our friend Phil come to church and we were excited about that! He is usually caught up with work but he has a big desire to be baptized and made his way over to church this past week. We are working with Laura as well and she is doing amazing! We are planning to take her to the temple on Saturday which I am so excited for! She knows that this church is true and has a great desire to learn more. We are going to teach her about the restoration and watch the Joseph Smith movie with her so she can understand the life and calling of him. Apart from that, we got to go to President Gubler and Sister Gubler's home for my departure interview. It was really good and I loved the counsel of how my mission has prepared me for life and how the experiences that I've had are going to help me so much, which I don't doubt. It was funny though because we needed to take a train to get to President's home so we did but as we got out of the train station, it was pouring rain. Quickly pulling out our Ipads to locate the map, our map told us to take a footpath that led through a forest that would get to their house. I don't know what we were thinking but we went in and almost got lost. In this wooded forest, there were paths on the right and left sides of us and so we just prayed and continued to followed in front of us and eventually made it out. What was even funnier was that Sister Gubler had called us asking if we needed a lift from the train station but our phone was on silent so we never heard the call. We did eventually get there in the end which was good! :) On the way back from President's, we needed to go to Clapham Junction to switch trains. As we got there, Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I took one look at the Cornish Pasty Shop and knew we needed to go and nourish ourselves with the food from Heaven. As we bought some pasties (which brought be back to the days of Cornwall), a guy asked us what church we were from and told us that he was from Sri Lanka. Sister Manage mentioned back that she was from there too and they both started spouting out some magical language. All in all, we came to find out that this guy was part of a Pentecostal church but wasn't really practicing. What amazing was that he said he felt spiritually low and said a prayer that morning to God for help after seven full years of not praying. That same evening, we had met him and we were all amazed at how God works! Miracle! We talked to this guy and he said he wanted to learn more and was open-minded. Just as we were about to leave, he hurried and grabbed a cone of delicious looking fries and handed them to us, saying, "These are complimentary. A gift from God." What an amazing week! We had the opportunity to share the gospel and teach the plan of Salvation with another one of our new friends named Glen and he's now planning to come to church. I am just so grateful to be a part of this work! I can't imagine my life without it. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy eating lots of turkey, potatoes, and pie! Love you all! </div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Burtis <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-37523668680701812882016-11-16T07:32:00.000-08:002016-11-16T07:44:49.032-08:00Remembering the Fallen<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What an incredible week! It seemed to be filled with so many miracles and we felt that our week was very productive! In the middle of last week, we</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> had a wonderful miracle. Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I had correlation and afterwards we got talking to some members. While being at the chapel, we then saw a couple who had just walked in but we didnt recognize them. We immediately went over to them and introduced ourselves. They said they lived very close to the chapel and wanted to see what it was like inside. We showed them the chapel and shared our contact information because they said they would like to come on Sunday. They left but moments later, the</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> wife then walked back into the chapel and wanted to make a donation. We kindly said that we could teach her more on the principle of tithing and offered to give her a chapel tour later in the week to which she gladly accepted! Amazing! Throughout the week, we were able to get several referrals from members. One of our returning friends who we've been teaching has a son who is 9 years old (not a member yet) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and we asked the son if he wanted to be taught and he said yes! We also got to sit down with a family who just recently moved over from Utah not too long ago and set goals with them. It was incredible because the mom wanted to invite one of her friends to the ward Christmas social and the 11 year old daughter wanted to invite three of her friends to activity days this coming week. The following day, the mom reported to us that her daughter did indeed invite one of her friends to activity days! It's amazing how involved the Staines ward is with missionary work. A funny story that happened to us this past week happened as we headed to a dinner appointment. We took a train to an area called Virginia Water (a part of the area I had never been to yet) and traveled to get to the member's home. As we did so, it was really dark and we had no idea where we were going. Sister Manage was leading from the directions given from her IPad and somehow we found ourselves on a dark, thin footpath that lead through some trees. To me, I felt like we were walking through some haunted trail and had no idea if we were going to make it out alive. A shadow came from behind the trees and my heart jumped but it ended up only being a 14-15 year kid who was walking the opposite direction. We finally saw a street lamp and the main road and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. We thought our traveling was over but to our dismay, we came to the road that we were suppose to walk on and it was completely dark and pitch black. We decided we'd take the longer route and find the sidewalk to walk on beside the road but that didn't help to much either because there really wasn't a sidewalk and it was still dark nonetheless. On top of all that, our phone battery was close to dying. I felt like I was living in the thriller movies. Super scary! Not to worry, I'm writing this email out four or five days later so it means that I survived and haven't died. I just love the adventures that you can have on your missions. Looking back, it just seems so funny. We did finally end up making it to the member's home and we were able to get there at a reasonable time. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This past Sunday was Remembrance Sunday and that was so fun to be a part of. The bishop of the ward here wanted for all of us to go and support the memorial that they do at Staines Town Hall so we all first met at the chapel and then walked over to where the Main Street was. People were gathered around everywhere and in the middle of the main street was soldiers dressed up in their uniforms, looking ready to march. At the beat of a drum, they marched forward and all the citizens of Staines trailing behind them. We all then gathered around the Town Hall where they laid the wreaths of poppies, said some prayers, and made a speech about remembering the fallen. It was really neat to be a part of and to be able to see how they did this memorial service here in England. I thought of my Grandpa Miller who was in the war as well and how grateful I am for his great example of service and sacrifice. Thanks Grandpa! </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Something that I came to learn this past week is that planning as a missionary is so important! I understand that it's not only going to help me for my mission but as well as the rest of my life. The three of us-Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I planned and made solid back up plans with determination to find the prepared. We waited for our bus that would get us to a less-active's home so we could share a message with her. This less-active hasn't been to church due to health problems and she didn't know if she wanted to actually return to church or not. We got on the 203 bus to get to her house but ten minutes into the ride, we realized we were on the wrong bus. We got off, took out our Areabook/plans and felt prompted to stay in the area that we found ourselves now standing in. On our maps, we realised there were a couple of potentials to visit so we took that time to contact them. On our way to one of the former Investigator's homes, we made a man named Glen! Glen had just recently lost his dad and wanted to know more about our message. We got to set a return appointment for Saturday and parted ways. A minute later, we then stopped by the former's home and he was just about to go out somewhere. We introduced ourselves and he (David) mentioned to us that it had been four years since he had been taught but that him and his now 11 year old daughter would be willing to meet on Saturday as well! Miracle! To top that all off, the three of us then headed to the Relief Society Chili Cook Off night and to our surprise, the less-active sister who we had originally planned to stop by and visit that day, was there! Season of Miracles! It was great to learn that we should never doubt in the plans and backup plans that we made but to never be afraid to change them if we feel prompted! God knows how to direct His work so let us all carefully listen and willingly follow to His spirit. I love you all and hope you have a great week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sister Burtis <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traveling to a members home in the dark woods.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learning how to make fish</td></tr>
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Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-85266533552259096362016-11-09T18:11:00.000-08:002016-11-09T18:11:12.851-08:00Birthdays and Bicycles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello family and friends! I hope you are doing well. What seemed to be<br />a sunny week last week and nice temperatures, seemed to drop suddenly,<br />and become bitter cold all of the sudden. Sister Manage and I both<br />agreed that this weather was a lot colder this year than last year.<br />This past week has been filled with miracles! Last week, we were able<br />to attend correlation meeting and then our friend Hassan showed up to<br />English class which is usually taught by our ward mission leader. What<br />a miracle! Unfortunately he couldn't find the bus stop across the<br />chapel and someone eventually leaded him there but by the time he got<br />to the church, the class was over. The three of us sisters and a<br />member helped him though and did our best to teach him some English.<br />The following day, Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I got to travel to<br />Kingston for our district meeting which took us a while via trains and<br />buses but we made our way and found the chapel. It was a smaller<br />chapel and hidden behind some wooded forests so that was an adventure<br />to try and find! :) We had our district meeting with the district for<br />the first time for the transfer so I got to meet new missionaries.<br />It's crazy but as you get older and older in the mission, there are a<br />lot more missionaries that you don't know. After district meeting, we<br />went with the sister training leaders over to their area and had an<br />exchange. I was with Sister Walker and it was really fun! The most<br />different thing about this exchange was that Sister Walker and I rode<br />bikes all around Addleston. The three remaining sisters, Sister<br />Wiscombe, Sister Chand, and Sister Manage walked. I had not been on a<br />bike for all of my mission up until now so you can imagine how scary<br />it was for me and how out of shape I might have been. Ive got to<br />applaud all those missionaries who ride bikes throughout the course of<br />their mission because it's no easy thing. I was huffing and puffing<br />and my legs felt pretty sore by the end of it. Plus, the scariest part<br />of it all was trying to go around the roundabouts while at the same<br />time, looking out for cars to make sure they knew you were there. At<br />the end of the exchange, I realised why Heavenly Father might have<br />made sure I wasn't on bike....I don't think I would have survived ;)<br />The exchange was great overall and I learned so much! We also found a<br />lady who was interested and she seemed really enthusiastic about<br />hearing our message so I'm excited to hear from the sisters on how it<br />goes. The rest of the week consisted of us bundling up warm with our<br />boots, thick gloves, scarves, and coats. We did a lot of finding this<br />week and got to hand out lots of brochures and DVDs. The people here<br />in Staines, though they say no sometimes, are still very friendly and<br />willing to talk. Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I were able to knock<br />on doors and do some street contacting and find ourselves in the<br />finding stages at the moment. We're not losing hope though and we have<br />faith that we will find the prepared! We got to do some service this<br />past week and do the poppy appeal which was fun! It's run by the<br />British legion and the poppy appeal is selling paper poppies and pins<br />and gathering donations for soldiers and families of soldiers. It's<br />all for remembrance day which will be this Sunday and it's to remember<br />those who have died in the wars and for the gratitude of the soldiers<br />in the war now. It's quite cool to see everyone in the different<br />communities being unified as they wear their poppies on their coats.<br />The end of the week consisted of Laura, our friend, coming to church<br />and that was great! That evening, we found out it was her husband's<br />birthday so we knocked on his door and sang Happy Birthday to him<br />which he seemed to really like! We feel the Lord working in many<br />different ways to soften the hearts of his children and we know that<br />there are prepared people out there. To top of the week, we got to<br />teach an 8 year old boy named Andrew about the restoration. His mum is<br />less-active but knows the importance of baptism so she wants us to<br />teach him. It's amazing the meekness and humility this little boy has<br />and how willing he is to listen. He would continually say to us, "I<br />want to receive the Holy Ghost!" We reassured him that he could in<br />time. The work of the Lord is great! I'm so grateful to be out here on<br />my mission and I know that the Lord has individual miracles for all of<br />us to witness. :) I love you all and hope you have a great week!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-33079441808621956502016-11-02T18:23:00.002-07:002016-11-02T18:23:49.926-07:00 A week filled with treats not tricks.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I AM LOVING FALL!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trunk or Treat </td></tr>
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Hello dear family and friends! So much has happened and I am so<br />grateful for the hand of the Lord in this great work. Last week, we<br />were able to go to the Trunk N' Treat at the chapel for the Staines<br />ward. Guess what we dressed up as? MISSIONARIES :) I think we won the<br />best costume award or at least, we should have ;) When we got there,<br />one of the part member families that we were teaching was there and it<br />was great because the husband (who's not a member) really enjoyed it<br />and got talking to a lot of the members. I got to know a lot more of<br />the members as well as we walked around the different trunks and got<br />to see how everything was decorated! It was a lot of fun. It's a<br />shame to say that although this is probably an American tradition, I<br />had never been to a Trunk N' Treat until just this past week. It was a<br />great turnout though and lots of the members showed up. I think a hard<br />part of it was hearing the Halloween music from some car speakers.<br />Myself and my companions wanted to rock out to "Thriller" by Michael<br />Jackson but we knew that we could handle it and it was all worth the<br />sacrifice. We were able to do a lot of finding and contacting this<br />week and we actually got to meet a guy named Hassan on the bus. When<br />we got talking to him, his English was pretty limited but he seemed to<br />understand our purpose. The best part of it all was that he said he's<br />planning to come to our English class that our ward mission leader<br />teaches! It was such a great miracle! Last weekend, we were able to<br />teach our friend, Sue, and Sue is doing so good! She's got a heart of<br />gold and is so humble and so willing to learn more about our message.<br />As we have followed up on her scripture reading, she's doing really<br />good and continues to say, "I think the Book of Mormon is true." We<br />got to teach her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she got so<br />excited as we approached the topic of baptism and Holy Ghost. The best<br />part of it all was that she came to church and that she loved it. The<br />members were so good to her and reached out to her with love. We were<br />able to teach Sue again just recently and as we asked how she liked<br />church, she smiled, and said, "I loved the things I learned. I want to<br />come again!" What a miracle! Phil, her husband, is working a lot but<br />also wants to learn so we are hoping that we can see the both of them<br />baptised before the end of the month. They have such great potential!<br />Halloween was really good here. Not a lot of England people celebrate<br />it as crazy as the Americans do but we were still able to see a lot of<br />people with their kids, dressed up, and trick or treating. That<br />Halloween evening, we got to do a FHE activity with Laura, our friend,<br />and got to cook butternut squash soup and share a message with her. It<br />was a lot of fun and her husband even joined as well. The Lord is so<br />good to us and though there seems to be a lot of opposition of times,<br />I know that the Saviour is with us and is guiding us. Some funny<br />things that happened this week was that since I came into Staines, we<br />needed to get another bed frame for my mattress. For a period of time,<br />I was sleeping on the mattress on the floor but it didn't bother me<br />because the mattress was comfy. This past week, we finally got a bed<br />and Sister Manage and I put it together. It was quite funny because<br />the wooden panels on it were really bent and it was a bit cheap so as<br />I got on the bed, it held the mattress up just fine as I slept but<br />then the next morning, the wood panels came down. It was a pretty<br />cheap bed frame I think but it's all good now and holding up together!<br />:) We also got to clear up our flat and have our carpets cleaned.<br />Apparently, the carpet hadn't been cleaned for a while and the flat<br />has been used by many missionaries before me and my two companions. We<br />got to clear out tons of clothes and things left behind by other<br />missionaries and ended up throwing away tons of things. It's been such<br />an eventful week! I'm so grateful to be a part of this work and I know<br />that the Lord is truly aware of our needs. I know He loves all of us<br />and really wants the best for us! I love you all and hope you all have<br />a great week!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-22127413927356082082016-10-28T16:51:00.000-07:002016-10-28T16:51:06.057-07:00"...Eye hath not seen, nor Ear Heard."<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loving the autumn weather! Thankfully it hasn't rained too much this<br />week :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I making curry for an investigator.<br />The rest of the pictures consist of lots of Birthday celebrations,<br />food, and cake for Sister Manage and her birthday :) Two members each<br />did a meal for us on her birthday and it was lots of fun. Her<br />chocolate rose cake was crazy cool!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Got asked to prepare food for 28 missionaries for specialised Zone<br />Training so we rallied up our team, got the ingredients, and we<br />(sisters) made Chicken Curry for the Zone Training. It turned out<br />really good!<br /></td></tr>
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Hello my dear family and friends! Staines brings so many adventures.<br />The autumn time seems to be getting closer and closer to an end but<br />the red, orange, and yellow leaves continue to remain so hopefully<br />it'll last just a while longer. Here in Staines, members are so<br />involved in the missionary work, there are lots of service<br />opportunities that arise, and lots of miracles are taking place! I am<br />so grateful to be a part of this great work. Last week, after our<br />preparation day, Sister Manage, Sister Chand, and I walked over to the<br />chapel and had ward correlation with the zone leaders and our ward<br />mission leader. After that, we were able to meet some members who<br />showed up for English class and it was fun to get to know them. The<br />following day, we got to see a returning friend who had been<br />struggling with some health problems so we were able to go and visit<br />her. Something I love about being a missionary is being able to reach<br />out to those in need. There were countless opportunities that we were<br />able to serve some people this past week and it was amazing. We got to<br />help a member for a big party she was having and got to cut lots of<br />vegetables and fruits. Sister Manage then got asked to cook Chicken<br />Curry for 28 missionaries and we (Sister Chand and I) helped her<br />prepare it. It was a bit stressful at first having to chop a lot of<br />onions and garlic and try to blend all the ingredients together but<br />then we got it all mixed together and cooked. I love learning how to<br />use raw vegetables and different ingredients to make dishes I've never<br />made before. Not that I didn't know how to cook before ;) .....but I'm<br />excited to experiment with more ingredients and try out more dishes.<br />That same day that we made curry was actually Sister Manage's birthday<br />and she's not a big fan of birthday parties. Well....she got lots of<br />celebrations that day. Anyone that knows me knows that I love to throw<br />parties, celebrate, and have fun. That morning of her birthday, Sister<br />Chand and I got to scream with love, "Happy Birthday!". Then we did<br />our studies and got to go with the Zone Leaders-Elder Baum and Elder<br />Thomas- to pick up lots of ingredients at the store for the chicken<br />curry. Sister Manage got another "Happy Birthday" sung to by the<br />elders and then after dropping the ingredients at the chapel, the<br />three of us sisters headed to an investigator's home. Laura is a lady<br />we are teaching at the moment and she is amazing. Her and a<br />enthusiastic member named Dee put together a birthday party for Sister<br />Manage. That evening, Sister Chand, Sister Manage, and I cooked curry<br />at the chapel and then a family from the Philippines showed up with<br />take away and more birthday cake for Sister Manage. Despite all the<br />celebrations, I think she really enjoyed it. :) We got to teach a guy<br />named Brother Contrarez this past week. All of his family are members<br />except him and he seems to have a great desire to learn. He has some<br />concerns but when we taught him part of the restoration, we could feel<br />the spirit strongly and he did as well. He says he feels good when<br />having the missionaries over to teach him and we invited to keep<br />inviting the spirit into his home by reading the Book of Mormon and<br />praying to know if it's true. He's so close! He'd be a great member<br />and we have faith that the Lord will help us see great miracles! We<br />had Stake Conference this past weekend and it was so good! All talks,<br />given from various members of the Staines Stake, brought words that<br />were exactly what I needed. Much of it was talked about becoming<br />spiritually and temporally self-reliant but also the important of<br />sacrifice and overcoming trials and challenges. It's amazing how the<br />Lord seems to be speaking only directly to you at times but then you<br />realize your brothers and sisters are all around you as well receiving<br />the revelation that they need. Just recently too, we had specialised<br />Zone Training with President and Sister Gubler and the assistants. We<br />got the curry ready and the elders got the rice all ready for lunch<br />and it turned out really great! Gosh, I just feel so blessed to have<br />President Gubler as my mission president. I nearly cried when he was<br />bearing testimony of the divinity of Christ and his love for God's<br />plan. For many months, I have found myself just sitting and staring at<br />this great and powerful mission president bringing in the spirit so<br />strongly and speaking the words that we needed to hear and it made me<br />sad to know this would be some of my last moments of hearing him speak<br />to us. Something I loved that President Gubler mentioned was about our<br />divine potential. He had us turn to 1 Corinthians 2:9 which says: "But<br />as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have<br />entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for<br />them that love him." President Gubler then asked us to think of the<br />greatest things we had seen, greatest things we had heard in our<br />lives, and to think of the greatest moments of our lives. Some<br />missionaries said, "Seeing the ocean when I scuba dived. Seeing the<br />starry sky in a dark night. Hearing the sound of a baseball against<br />the bat. Hearing melodic music. Opening my mission call." He then had<br />us closed our eyes and then asked us to picture what the celestial<br />kingdom would be like. After a few moments, He asked us, "What did it<br />look like to you? What did it have there?" We all listed off some<br />things that came to our mind as we imagined the celestial kingdom and<br />then President Gubler said, "All the majestic sounds, scenes, and<br />moments you've had in your life can't even compare to what the<br />Celestial Kingdom will look like. EYE hath not seen, nor EAR<br />heard....Can you imagine what it would be like to live with no pain?<br />No Allergies, no hay fevers, no colds, nothing. Can you imagine what<br />it will be like to live with those who you love forever and ever? If<br />you die in faith, your test is done. As long as your willing to give<br />up everything here to have something even greater. THERE IS NOTHING<br />that can replace greater than the celestial kingdom. This is what we<br />can have and this is what God asks us to offer to people today-right<br />now!" It was all so mind blowing yet so true! President Gubler opened<br />all of our eyes to the wonderful potential we all have and how<br />important it was to share it with others! I love this work and I know<br />that we all have the greatest potential to reach our Heavenly Home.<br />Let us know give up at any moment despite trials, pains, challenges,<br />or opposition that we face because there is so much greater things<br />coming our way if we endure strong and remember that the Saviour is<br />always with us! I love you! Have a great week everyone!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-61337749824653589352016-10-22T11:51:00.000-07:002016-10-22T11:55:54.639-07:00One more transfer, One more time to move<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfHnei4JXZnSzLFw1uuNPFc1FgMVrcqeAZiLwu9N9px1vg27-ADwM_8ODymoQeUerfHzQ3UQn43KUaQ4zEOhjBwQrVguTBuZv6iBi8SwuvFr27VaFY_IGt-HAyqSLbwwKRR4EbILO330/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252870%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfHnei4JXZnSzLFw1uuNPFc1FgMVrcqeAZiLwu9N9px1vg27-ADwM_8ODymoQeUerfHzQ3UQn43KUaQ4zEOhjBwQrVguTBuZv6iBi8SwuvFr27VaFY_IGt-HAyqSLbwwKRR4EbILO330/s400/FullSizeRender+%252870%2529.jpg" width="373" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gosh, I love this sister so much. Training her was such a precious<br />
gift and I'll never forget the memories that we made together! She<br />
means the world to me and I know that Sister Wang will be such a great<br />
missionary! I miss her already but I know that the Lord has great<br />
plans in store for her and Brighton!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One last district meeting/lunch in Brighton with amazing<br />
missionaries!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6rbqamNj4wYFn_OBARDfZ82PZnwGCJVD4BCt7ozONN_xNivrCI-GPuG33NTh45es_IFhsJyXhu6WiKJwA1Nw9wIkAQiGuqnuhof5C15RkxnSz9c6AgWggrOExDjH0QjJf6gZ_2PW6zAk/s1600/IMG_8110.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6rbqamNj4wYFn_OBARDfZ82PZnwGCJVD4BCt7ozONN_xNivrCI-GPuG33NTh45es_IFhsJyXhu6WiKJwA1Nw9wIkAQiGuqnuhof5C15RkxnSz9c6AgWggrOExDjH0QjJf6gZ_2PW6zAk/s400/IMG_8110.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sister Lowry and I!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT4HAOb_hwhiNjsl56TB6-BNH1kA4ZaNUyzAEd4RopBUbwwsOloIUKF4AuBmY3rPrq6OTmUie2BKFNnS5Dipf_roSzlSnw1uNLMi0h9fqNt6cDsk3OOmSEg9bGedefnnvOMLb9rncKmRA/s1600/IMG_8114.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT4HAOb_hwhiNjsl56TB6-BNH1kA4ZaNUyzAEd4RopBUbwwsOloIUKF4AuBmY3rPrq6OTmUie2BKFNnS5Dipf_roSzlSnw1uNLMi0h9fqNt6cDsk3OOmSEg9bGedefnnvOMLb9rncKmRA/s400/IMG_8114.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AddI'm not gonna lie and say that someone painted a picture of me and<br />
Sister Wang but it sure does look like the two of us ;) It's a great<br />
painting representing missionary work!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyuJa-Mb7WyVY6D35nJkeJ31OGuSlZ9CW_Ljm1h3lNCubTxriiiVy-OT65RuiSWuuhApJYIAgO3vfIznOsGtukv3Wc0haTpsWxeByfwFbU_38gC64cP8l2AC6qEOb4KdIe7oNoBdziSHs/s1600/IMG_8115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyuJa-Mb7WyVY6D35nJkeJ31OGuSlZ9CW_Ljm1h3lNCubTxriiiVy-OT65RuiSWuuhApJYIAgO3vfIznOsGtukv3Wc0haTpsWxeByfwFbU_38gC64cP8l2AC6qEOb4KdIe7oNoBdziSHs/s320/IMG_8115.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The two cute Scottish STLs and Sister Wang and I. So sad to<br />
be leaving them.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUVsfa5DN-uvZrwVY1lSNXJd-k15K80raVdPJXUm1U6eW0w31R9WE_fzlRVjieJU7cPq42_XOaS-UnmH946EeAP1M3MPzQAJtW-5IzTSRCuSbcxptOAxMbXVHAhssql0lNwDInKQ75pnA/s1600/IMG_8119.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUVsfa5DN-uvZrwVY1lSNXJd-k15K80raVdPJXUm1U6eW0w31R9WE_fzlRVjieJU7cPq42_XOaS-UnmH946EeAP1M3MPzQAJtW-5IzTSRCuSbcxptOAxMbXVHAhssql0lNwDInKQ75pnA/s400/IMG_8119.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Such an amazing lady! She's the one in the purple and her little boy<br />
is on the sofa chair. She is someone Sister Wang and I got to teach my<br />
last day in Brighton and she is amazing! I have good hopes for her and<br />
her family :D Sister Wang will continue to teach her with her new<br />
companion.</td></tr>
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Hello my dear family and friends! Who knew so much can happen in a<br />
week! It was quite eventful and quite fun-filled with miracles,<br />
laughter, and tears as well. Sister Wang and I debated on what to do<br />
for our preparation day last week but didn't really have any clue on<br />
what we could do. We talked to our district to see if we could do a<br />
district preparation day but since there was so much to do, we weren't<br />
able to, so we all decided that we'd be doing it the following week<br />
(little did I know that it would be my last one in Brighton). That<br />
evening Sister Wang and I had two appointments and really looked<br />
forward to meeting with them but as traveled the two homes, one of the<br />
people ended up not being home and the other person gave us a fake<br />
address. Not to worry though because we did the best the make the most<br />
out of the time we had and went to a returning friend's home. This<br />
returning friend expressed interest in being taught again and we were<br />
able to speak to him and his daughter. As we sat there in his home,<br />
they had a huge German shepherd puppy that came up to us and barked<br />
very loudly. Sister Wang nearly jumped out of her seat. The puppy was<br />
looking to play with us so we had to ignore it but wow, his barks were<br />
boisterous. We survived that evening without the dog wanting to jump<br />
all over us and managed to talk to our friend and share some of our<br />
message. That following day, before our last district meeting, we were<br />
preparing a presentation on "Developing the faith to find" when<br />
suddenly the phone rang! President asked me some questions about the<br />
upcoming transfers and sled if I would be willing to help out and move<br />
into a trio in Staines. It took me some time for my head to wrap<br />
around the idea that I could actually be moving for my last transfer.<br />
I told him, I'd go anywhere the Lord needed me to go and that was it.<br />
I broke the news to Sister Wang and she was very sad. Poor girl, she<br />
didn't expect it to happen just like me. We traveled to Sutton to have<br />
our exchange with the sister Training leader, Sister Couper, and her<br />
companion and it was bitter sweet. I loved the many different things I<br />
learned on that exchange but it was sad to know that this was probably<br />
my last time I would be seeing these two Scottish lassies. While on<br />
the exchange, Sister Cassidy and I got to go and do service for a<br />
member. We were able to help with some of the house and the Zone<br />
leaders and us were able to assist in helping with putting up shelves,<br />
etc. We came to find out that one of the Zone leaders would be moving<br />
to the Staines Zone as well in the same ward so it made me feel better<br />
to know that I wasn't alone and that there were missionaries that we<br />
knew. The Brighton ward and district for me has truly become my<br />
family. Sister Wang and I and the elders that served in the Brighton<br />
ward grew and learned so much from the challenges that came our way<br />
and also rejoiced together in the miracles that we saw. Our past<br />
weekend ended with us missionaries holding a football/sports night and<br />
we were able to have some returning friends and former investigators<br />
show up which was really good! As I came to the Brighton ward for the<br />
last time, I truly came to realise just how much I love these people<br />
and how wonderful it was to be in Brighton for some of my mission.<br />
Sister Wang and I saw so many miracles my last couple of days. We were<br />
heading to the chapel to finish up the progress record and when we got<br />
to the chapel, we saw a note on the door that said on the front,<br />
"Important." In it, a guy had written that he was from Spain and that<br />
He wanted to be able to speak with missionaries who spoke Spanish. On<br />
the letter, it included his number and his address from Brighton. What<br />
a cool miracle! Thanks to my two years of Spanish from high school, I<br />
was able to pick out some phrases and got the idea of the message so<br />
we called the Spanish elders and gave them the referral. I've never<br />
really seen that before and it just goes to show at God is really<br />
preparing people. On my last day in Brighton, we got to be able to<br />
teach Philomenia! I'd been waiting for this day for some time. We set<br />
up a teaching time with her and on Sunday, we asked the relief society<br />
if any of them could come with us. One of the YSA sisters who had just<br />
recently returned from her mission, raised her hand, and said she<br />
could go with us to go and teach Philomenia. The best part about it<br />
all was that Philomenia was from Ghana and this other sister was from<br />
Ghana! The member joined us the morning of the teaching and Philomenia<br />
was in. As we shared the message with her, Philomenia would ask us<br />
some questions and she seemed to find answers to what she had asked<br />
about. She was very open-minded, accepted the invite of baptism, and<br />
said too that her daughter was pleading to come to church the other<br />
day! Once again, God is truly preparing the heart of His children. I<br />
was sad that it would be my last time to teach her but I know that<br />
Philomenia can make it and I know she will continue to be taught by<br />
Sister Wang and her new companion. I packed my bags, got everything<br />
ready, and said a painful goodbye to my dear sister, Sister Wang. She<br />
is an angel and I'm grateful the Lord gave me the opportunity to serve<br />
with her. I can imagine that Sister Wang and I were in the pre-earth<br />
life and eagerly anticipated the time that we got to serve together.<br />
Within a blink of an eye, it's now over and I'm sad but I'm so<br />
grateful that we got to learn from each other and grow from the<br />
experiences that we had. As I got to Staines, I met my two sweet<br />
sisters, Sister Manage from Sri Lanka and Sister Chand from Fiji.<br />
Wanna know what that means?! I've now officially not had one American<br />
companion over the course of my entire mission. I guess it's not<br />
something to brag about but I think it's just so cool that all of them<br />
are not even from the same place. I had Sister Schmidt from Germany,<br />
Sister Hamann from Australia, Sister Nguyen from Vietnam, Sister<br />
Fromgren from Norway, Sister Wang from China, and now Sister Manage<br />
from Sri Lanka and Sister Chand from Fiji. I told all of them to let<br />
me come visit them and they agreed so I think I might just be<br />
traveling the world in the near future :) As I arrived to Staines,<br />
everything was very familiar to me. They are familiar to me because<br />
Staines is the first chapel I came to when I first arrived in the<br />
field and also, we've had several mission leadership conferences there<br />
so it wasn't all too foreign for me. That evening, Sister Chand and<br />
Sister Manage told me that we'd be having a Philippiano enrichment<br />
Night with the relief society and it was so fun. A member actually<br />
ended up bring her non-member friend which was really great and I hear<br />
that the Staines ward is very good to do missionary work. We have<br />
several member referrals that we are actually going to be teaching<br />
this week and I'm looking forward to being able to serve around these<br />
people! Overall, this week has been so eventful but also so wonderful!<br />
I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!<br />
Love,<br />
Sister Burtis<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTumULHoJC7kF2KIXWVrLmC6UWIoMK2HjhYGwbfY5L8NwOvCveqsuREFelUjqRopBJB0KCf6q-cT4_Ssmgbv6mEO7-JqpW-SzRiUaQKPhlT4Dkjct7yBIY6pEWmC3nGbwlNbt0zxNC_o4/s1600/IMG_8143.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTumULHoJC7kF2KIXWVrLmC6UWIoMK2HjhYGwbfY5L8NwOvCveqsuREFelUjqRopBJB0KCf6q-cT4_Ssmgbv6mEO7-JqpW-SzRiUaQKPhlT4Dkjct7yBIY6pEWmC3nGbwlNbt0zxNC_o4/s640/IMG_8143.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new companions:<br />In the middle is Sister Manage-from Sri Lanka/(Also grew up in <br />Manchester)<br />On the right is Sister Chand-from Fiji!<br />So much fun :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-44707992731757914412016-10-22T11:24:00.002-07:002016-10-22T11:24:45.898-07:00"Be not weary in well-doing..."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsRLw_uwcMTDe1RahyphenhyphenQTaNoIYW_R1zIYk9OYsvABDzNnw2j2sqDXlhVvhfQgMVMXQMjMsKh0kqCgIl0xbXpuqivmWBlyp3tMFJlMax6eoBDlh-WAuWlED3TBRiObs8YSl-VzVRZF08erE/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252869%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsRLw_uwcMTDe1RahyphenhyphenQTaNoIYW_R1zIYk9OYsvABDzNnw2j2sqDXlhVvhfQgMVMXQMjMsKh0kqCgIl0xbXpuqivmWBlyp3tMFJlMax6eoBDlh-WAuWlED3TBRiObs8YSl-VzVRZF08erE/s320/FullSizeRender+%252869%2529.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
Hello everyone! Goodness, what a week it has been! I was just<br />discussing the events of the past week with Sister Wang and asking her<br />what happened last week and as I asked her about certain events, she'd<br />tell me...."No that was two weeks ago" but indeed, it was just a<br />couple of days ago. I guess that's always going to be the life of a<br />missionary. A day will feel like a week. A week will feel like a day.<br />We were able to stop by a few members last week and are really working<br />to build unity and increase the work here in Brighton. I loved the<br />emphasis of members and missionaries working together so we are<br />excited to continue to do that here in the ward. We got to work with<br />the young women and young women's president to help us reach out to a<br />13 year old that we are working with. Her name is Ajoa and she is<br />really nice! She has been coming to young women's for the past two<br />weeks now and we are working to teach her and her mom about this<br />wonderful gospel! :) For young women's, the group of the 6 girls,<br />us-sister missionaries, and the young women's president got to do<br />family history. It's been a while for me to do family history so when<br />we got on the website, I was the one asking the girls what the<br />different colours or squares meant on the family tree. I also needed<br />refreshing on all the rules of family history. It was quite fun! We<br />also got to play get-to-know-you games and it seemed to build a lot of<br />unity! The members are very good to reach out to the people we are<br />teaching and are good to friendship any who come to the ward<br />activities. For most of the week, we've been working to find through<br />activities. Activities such as young women's/young men's, YSA family<br />home evening, sports nights, etc. We seem to get a lot of success from<br />that. A lot of people we talk to hear about our chapel but have never<br />been to it before so they are quite surprised when they see the<br />church. Sister Wang and I traveled to a couple of areas this week that<br />we haven't worked too much in. There was an area called Portslade and<br />so we went Park finding and street contacting which proved to be quite<br />successful. There was a lady from Romania whose English was limited<br />but enough to let us know that she reads the bible and is Christian.<br />We pointed to our Book of Mormon and asked her if she'd like one in<br />Romanian. She smiled and said yes so we are excited to be able to stop<br />by her house this upcoming week and give it to her! We got to park<br />find and found some few people who were not all too interested but we<br />felt pretty successful in how many people we got to talk to that day.<br />As we walked by a tall fence, a soccer ball came flying toward us. We<br />jumped out of the way to avoid it and behind the fence, we saw two<br />young boys running up and shouting, "Excuse me! Can you get our ball?"<br />I picked up their soccer ball and smiling, we told them to be careful<br />because the next time that happened, there might not be someone to<br />pick it up for them. One of the boys shouted, "Throw it!" The other<br />boy yelled, "Kick it!" I thought about it and then decided to kick it<br />over the fence. I kicked it a bit too hard and it was much farther<br />past them and into the middle of the playing court. One of the kid's<br />eyes widened and he looked back where the ball had landed. He turned<br />back and as he looked to Sister Wang and I, he exclaimed..."That<br />was....AMAZING!" It sounded somewhat like the little kid on movie "The<br />Incredibles" when he sees something cool and says, "That was totally<br />wicked!" It made me and Sister Wang laugh and made our day. The week<br />continued to be great. We got to knock several streets and found great<br />success through that. At one particular house, a dad opened the door<br />and on his shirt, it said-"Proud dad." We smiled and knew how to start<br />a good conversation with that-- to which he opened up even more and<br />even got excited and showed us pictures of his daughters on the wall<br />next to the door. We asked him if we could come back and he said yes!<br />Miracle! As President Gubler and our mission has emphasised even more<br />on the season of miracles and a theme of #31, meaning a goal of 31<br />baptisms for the month of October which has 31 days, we suddenly felt<br />a greater opposition than we ever have before. We know that the<br />adversary is doing everything to prevent this work from happening but<br />we know now for sure that we are truly in the midst of the season of<br />miracles. This work is hastening! I can feel it! There were a couple<br />of days this past week where I seemed to have opposition as well.<br />There were trials and challenges that laid our way but with help from<br />leaders and people around us, we overcame them and still continued<br />this work. Following the days after the hard challenges and trials<br />that seemed like harder than ever before, Sister Wang and I felt<br />something. We felt the spirit guiding our paths, we felt a sure<br />knowledge that something great is going to happen! What a blessing it<br />is to be a part of this great work! Our mission president said it<br />perfectly, "When you're drowning in fear, doubt, or discouragement,<br />don't forget that your lifeguard walks on water. We should wake up<br />with an expectation that it will be a good day, because we have Jesus<br />Christ on our side!" The rest of the week proved to be wonderful!<br />Sister Wang got to give a talk on Pioneers this past week in sacrament<br />meeting and she did a great job. Being from China, she didn't know too<br />much about pioneers so the both of us got to work on her talk together<br />and it was a lot of fun. Not only did that happen in church but guess<br />who came to the Brighton ward!? Sally, the recent convert, from<br />Clapham! It was so wonderful to be able to embrace her in a big hug<br />and to see how everything was doing. The Lord does truly provide! He<br />loves all of us and He will never, ever give up on us! I testify that<br />this is His work! I love being a part of it and I want to be a part of<br />it for the rest of my life! Love you all!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-71946401224749755892016-10-22T11:15:00.001-07:002016-10-22T11:15:49.491-07:00Sharing the Love of the Saviour!<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 16px;">Hello family and friends! Did you rejoice like me as the countdown for General Conference happened? Each day as Conference drew nearer and nearer, I felt like a little kid waiting for Christmas to happen! This past week was filled with many opportunities to be filled with a spiritual feast. It began with Eastern Zone Conference. Sister Wang and I traveled down early morning to Crawley. There was a meeting for trainers and new missionaries so we went to that which was really good and then the actual conference began. During the trainer's meeting, I was really excited to be able to see Sister Fromgren. As she walked into the room, we both looked at each other with excitement, screamed each other's name, and embraced in a big hug. Reuniting with your past companions is the best. You've been through everything with them and you just truly come to recognise the eternal friendship that you made with them when you see them again after not having seen them for several months. I loved being able to see my old Zone, the Wandsworth Zone, and all the missionaries there. It was great to know that everyone was doing good in that area. Something that Sister Fromgren told me got me really excited. Back in Clapham, Sister Fromgren and I had been knocking a set of doors on a particular street and faced a lot of opposition that day. After many rejections, we had knocked on a door and a lady named Michelle had opened the door and actually let us in. Well later, some anti-Mormon material crossed her paths so she asked us not to come around anymore which was really sad. Sister Fromgren told me that her and her companion decided to try again just recently and she said she wanted to be taught! Apparently one of her friends started investigating so she was curious to learn more. The Lord does truly prepare! We never know to which seeds we may plant! All we can do is open our mouths and share the joy of the gospel! That's something that was really emphasised in our Zone Conference! We got to role-play many different situations and learning how to ask inspired questions, learning to listen, and, how to testify at the right moments. I learned so much and I'm grateful that I got to be a part of that Conference. That evening after Zone Conference, Sister Wang and I got to go to Young Women's because Philimenia (the lady that came to the "Meet the Mormons" movie night) wanted her daughter Ajoa to come. Ajoa came and the young women were so good to friendship her! They got to design t-shirts and it was really fun to be able to answer questions and help them. That evening, Ajoa got a lift home from a member and Philimenia texted us saying, "Thank you so much for the evening! My daughter said that she loved it!" We were so excited by this point and Ajoa plans to come this Thursday which we are excited about. 😀 This past weekend was General Conference and oh how I loved it! I had written some questions down and got many more answers than I had expected. I loved what Neil L. Anderson said about missionary work---> </span>“I suggest that you stop feeling guilty about any insufficiency you think you have in sharing the gospel. Rather, pray… for opportunities. …Please don’t see your efforts to share the love of the Savior with another as a pass/fail test with your grade determined by how your friends respond to your feelings or invitation... With our mortal eyes, we cannot judge the effect of our efforts, nor can we establish the timetable. When you share the love of the Savior with another, your grade is always an A+.” There are many moments where I or other missionaries may have felt we aren't good enough or we can't do this work because of our weaknesses but it's true what Elder Andersen said...our purpose is to share the love of the Saviour with others! It's all my heart yearns to do. I can't wait for these next weeks to be able to share with others the love for this Gospel and what it has done for me. This General Conference is a boost to hasten the work. Members and missionaries can work together to unite and bring our brothers and sisters back home! What are you doing today to help the missionaries in your area? Most importantly, what are you doing today to help the Lord in His great work? :) I invite all of you to pray for opportunities to seek someone who may be searching for the truth but may not know where to find it. Imagine being in their shoes, without the gospel, a world with no light, no hope, only wondering what will happen after this life. I know this work is true! Something that is crazy is that yesterday, I got an email from the mission telling me I had only 8 weeks left. I consider it the "dreaded" 8 Weeks email and all the missionaries have talked about it in the past. It was weird to get but It gives me a great hope and motivation to work my very hardest and do my very best! In all reality, I feel my mission has only begun. I know that the Lord has many things for me to learn. I'm grateful to be out here serving here in Brighton! I know the people I've met are the people I need to meet and the experiences I've had are the things I needed to experience. I love you all! I hope you have a great week! </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
Love,</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
Sister Burtis </div>
Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-11469219412632481592016-09-29T07:40:00.002-07:002016-09-29T07:40:51.778-07:00"Meet the Mormons!"-A Success!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparing treats for the activity.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making dinner for my companion.</td></tr>
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Hello my dear family and friends! What a crazy week it has been! Not<br />
to worry though- I mean crazy as in busy and also filled with some<br />
stories to share :) The beginning of the past week was a lot of fun!<br />
Our district went around to the University of Sussex and got to hand<br />
out flyers for our "Meet the Mormons" movie night. Throughout this<br />
past week, more and more students have been coming in for the school<br />
year so it's been a great opportunity to share with them the Gospel.<br />
Being at the university campus though takes me back to the memories of<br />
myself being at Utah State campus. It's fun to be able to be on the<br />
missionary perspective though and getting to worry about sharing the<br />
Gospel than having to stress about a big scary exam or something. As<br />
we got to the university, each companionship then split up from the<br />
group and went to find. Sister Wang and I went to contact one of our<br />
friends but she didn't end up being home so we went around and talked<br />
to some people. One of the people we met was a guy named Will! Will<br />
was actually working for his job and delivering pizza by the<br />
university when we stopped and talked to him. As we shared with him<br />
about the Book of Mormon, he pointed to it and said, "Can I have one?"<br />
Sister Wang and I love that question! We were able to give him one and<br />
set up a return appointment with him. The next day, we were able to do<br />
some service and go to the Bishop's home. Sister Wang and I and Laura<br />
(Bishop's wife) got to make popcorn balls with toffee sauce and also<br />
melted marshmallows and it was very fun! We also texted everyone in<br />
our phone to invite them to the movie night and got some replies back<br />
for some who wanted to come! One of those miracles included a lady<br />
named Philimenia. I need to share with you first how it was that we<br />
met her and what the result of the movie night was :D So our district<br />
printed out many flyers and got the news spread out to all of Brighton<br />
that we would be having a movie night. One day, we decided to go to<br />
Churchill Square (the big shopping center) and hand out flyers the<br />
week previous to the event. As we did so, we felt prompted to go and<br />
talk to a lady named Philimenia. As we approached her, she smiled and<br />
said, "I know you guys!" We recognised her as well and it turns out we<br />
had talked to her a month or so ago and had given her a Book of<br />
Mormon. We got to invite her and her three children to the "Meet the<br />
Mormons" movie night and she was very excited! The evening of the<br />
movie night approached and Philimenia called us asking us how to get<br />
to the church. We were able to guide her there and her and her<br />
children all got to see the movie! The amazing part of it too was that<br />
her 20 month year old stayed pretty quiet the whole time so Philimenia<br />
could enjoy the movie, her 6 year old wanted to know where the<br />
children's class was, and her 13 year old daughter told us afterwards<br />
that really enjoyed the film. After the movie ended, we turned to<br />
Philimenia and asked, "How did you feel?" She replied, "I felt<br />
something a lot and I want to know when your church service time is!"<br />
What an incredible miracle! We know we are in the midst of the season<br />
of miracles and that the Lord is truly preparing the hearts of His<br />
children. The Lord is so good and He knew the efforts we made for this<br />
movie night and we know that He truly provided. We were able to also<br />
have some less-active friends show up and members there as well who<br />
helped fellowship. The work is going great! We were able to see some<br />
of our friends who have expressed their interest in coming out to<br />
church. We needed to explain though that this week would be General<br />
Conference and they sounded even more excited that they could be a<br />
part of that. I'm excited to see what this next week has in store for<br />
us. Sister Wang and I have felt ourselves getting better and better in<br />
the different aspects of the work that we are trying to improve in. We<br />
know that the season of miracles is here. Of course, there's lots of<br />
opposition that we faced this past week but we saw that as we trusted<br />
God, all the hard things become easier and we receive even an a<br />
greater amount of blessings from Him. I love you all and hope you have<br />
a great week! Thanks for all your support and love!!!!<br />
Love,<br />
Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-43400538280620633942016-09-22T05:44:00.000-07:002016-09-22T05:44:02.057-07:00The tender mercies of the Lord!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seven Sisters<br />
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Hello family and friends! I'm excited to continue to share with you<br />what has happened this past week. Our Brighton district and the<br />Eastbourne district got to go to seven sisters and it was a lot of<br />fun! I honestly felt as if I was walking in a painting. It all almost<br />seemed like a dream. It was made a reality though when all of us felt<br />the heat and humidity. It was very hot that day! It left us feeling<br />tired but we were able to get ourselves prepared to find the people<br />nonetheless. This week, Sister Wang and I have been pushing to find<br />new investigators and also invite everyone we meet to the "Meet the<br />Mormons" movie night. We are excited because it's going to take place<br />in a couple of days and many of the friends we have and potentials say<br />that they'll be coming and we have faith that they will! Sister Wang<br />and I were able to teach many people that we met about the restoration<br />and we got to set return appointments with them! One of my most<br />memorable lessons was with a lady named Annie! We got a member to come<br />with us to the teach and we were able to teach Annie and felt the<br />spirit strongly. Jamal, her little boy, was running around but he was<br />often keen and keeping silent for the important parts of the lesson.<br />What was cool too is that Jamal's dad was there and he took the time<br />to listen. We said hello to him and as we shook his hand, he told us<br />that he had met us just a week or two ago on on the Main Street next<br />to the shops. Our memory was brought back and Sister Wang and I<br />realized how small of a world it was and realized that we did talk to<br />him earlier! Super cool! It just goes to show that talking to everyone<br />is very important because you never know who you will run into again.<br />Annie has accepted to read the Book of Mormon and she is willing to<br />learn more! The Lord does truly provide. We were able to see a good<br />number of our friends this previous week and it's a week that I won't<br />forget. I've been able to see so many tender mercies from the Lord and<br />I know that He is truly watching over us. This week and past week has<br />been a series of a reflection over the course of my mission. It's<br />suddenly hit me that my mission is a lot farther than I want it to be<br />and I was sad. Being set apart from the world is great and I love it.<br />I hope to continue to give my all to the Lord in the time I have left<br />and I know I have much to learn throughout the course of these next<br />week! I love you all and remember that the time the Lord gives to us<br />throughout each stage of our lives is precious and we should always<br />treasure it!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-31084070740562675992016-09-14T17:32:00.001-07:002016-09-14T17:32:20.638-07:00Flood of Miracles :) :)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello Family and friends! I hope this current month is a good one for<br />you. For me, it's passing by with flying colours and I can't seem to<br />grasp where all the time goes. This week has been such a great one and<br />I'm excited to be able to share some of the miracles and adventures<br />with you that we got to see! To start out, Sister Wang and I got to go<br />and explore a palace looking place called the Pavilion. Apparently<br />it's this really posh and fancy palace that was King George the<br />fourth's. Sister Wang and I unfortunately didn't get to go inside and<br />feel majestic and cool because it cost £13 to get in and that was<br />pretty expensive for the two of us missionaries. We did get to explore<br />the grounds though because that's open for anyone to see and that was<br />really fun! The following day, our district got to use the banner<br />again and go banner contacting in a busy shopping/town area called<br />Churchill square. I think it's got to do something with Winston<br />Churchill. The first few people I got talking to included a guy named<br />Andrew and though he wasn't interested, he asked more about how<br />missionary work was and about the church. He then asked me if I was<br />from Ireland. Another person in a matter of two weeks who thought I<br />was Irish. Oh boy. I think I might be doing lifts or tunes with<br />particular words or something. I told him I wasn't and he said,<br />"Surely your parents or family must be Irish!" I laughed and said,<br />"Nope." I think maybe it's a sign I should move to Ireland or<br />something in the future. We did get to see lots of success from banner<br />contacting and we were able to invite lots of people out to a movie<br />event that we, missionaries, are hosting. We made flyers and got to<br />hand them out and a lot of people accepted them so I'm excited to see<br />how this movie night goes. We are planning to show "Meet the Mormons"<br />in two weeks time. :) I think that's something I've really loved<br />doing- is being able to help others come to a greater knowledge of<br />what the Gospel and our church is about. Lots of people who we talk to<br />say that they have heard of our church but don't know what we are<br />really about. This week, Sister Wang and I worked to find new<br />investigators and we did indeed, with the Lord's help, find some.<br />There were lots of tender mercies here and there from Heavenly Father<br />to show us how much he is aware of our needs. Sister Wang and I<br />traveled to an area called Whitehawk and went to contact a friend who<br />had been taught by missionaries before. We knocked on his door but no<br />answer. We decided to knock the doors of the side of his house and a<br />guy named Clive opened the upper house window of his house and looked<br />down below to where we were standing. "Hello there!" we said to him.<br />The conversation turned into him asking us to return and talk to us<br />more about our church and we got excited! Severals steps (or what it<br />seemed) later, we talked to a guy named Dave and he told us he had<br />heard about our church and said he wanted to learn more. We set a<br />return appointment with him and then bid farewell. A few feet away, we<br />met two more people who were really receptive! God does truly provide!<br />You can imagine by this evening how big Sister Wang and I's smiles<br />were :) :) We have so much to thank the Lord for. Throughout the<br />course of the week, we continued to meet 4 new people who said they<br />wanted to learn more. One of them was Annie. Sister Wang and I<br />traveled to an area called Moulscoomb and planned to contact some<br />friends who had previously met missionaries. We stopped by a lady<br />named Annie and Annie opened her door. We asked her if she would be<br />willing to hear our message and she smiled and said yes! Miracle! She<br />had put her son to bed already so we made an appointment for another<br />day and we were able to at least share with her some principles that<br />we believed in. Annie has such a special spirit about her and she was<br />one of those people that you just feel that this is why we are in the<br />area at this time. I know God has a great plan for all of his children<br />and it's all in the timing of Him. Another fun thing that happened<br />this week was Sister Wang and I traveled to the Sussex University and<br />stopped by a member and his family's home. This family was baptized in<br />Nigeria and then moved to Brighton. We knocked on the door and all of<br />them were home. Not only were they there but also a friend of the<br />dad's. At first this friend of theirs didn't seem too interested but<br />as we got sharing our message and doing an activity which involved<br />participation, we were able to see him soften his heart towards the<br />idea of listening to our message and eventually he joined in and even<br />answered some of the questions. At the end of sharing the message, we<br />got to give him a Book of Mormon which he accepted. The family that we<br />were visiting had us share the message and the wife invited us to stay<br />for some dinner. So Sister Wang and I got some proper Nigerian food :D<br />It was not fufu but something like that- made of wheat and then using<br />our hands, we'd roll it around and then dip it in a really good sauce!<br />We also got the traditional chicken. Going to Brighton, I didn't think<br />I'd be getting African food but England is so diverse and you can<br />still be a part of many different cultures wherever you go. This week<br />brought many adventures and lots of miracles! I just love, love, love<br />this Gospel. One thing I've recently just come to see more and more is<br />that the Gospel is all about becoming better. There is no getting<br />worse or having faults when we simply just turn to our Saviour Jesus<br />Christ and rely on him fully to help us overcome and improve on any<br />weaknesses. There are times where I may feel inadequate and feel that<br />perhaps I'm not good enough but without fail, the Lord provides me<br />knowledge that I'm doing enough for His work. I find joy in the work,<br />feel love for the people, and I know that I'm becoming what the<br />Saviour wants me to become and I know that's really all that matters<br />in the end. Inadequacies and failures in life come but they are just<br />there to help us to learn and to grow. It's just as I have learned<br />throughout the course of my mission, the Saviour will never give up on<br />us, so let's not give up on Him. :) :) Love you all! Have a great<br />week!<br />Love,<br />Sister Burtis</div>
Mission Adventures<br />
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Old Steine & The Pavilion<br />
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<br />Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-56253623472629224032016-09-07T16:08:00.001-07:002016-09-07T16:11:44.828-07:00Recognizing more of God's love for His children<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Another week come and gone so quickly. I loved this past week just as<br />I have loved all the past weeks of my mission. This particular past<br />week however just really showed me just how much love you can feel for<br />Heavenly Father's children. We were able to go to our friend,<br />Michelle's, home last week. Having been a bit late already and missing<br />the bus that we were suppose to take, Sister Wang and I literally ran<br />probably a mile or two to get to Michelle's home. Not to<br />mention....there was a big huge hill we needed to try and run up. It<br />was tough. As we got to Michelle's home, panting and breathing heavily<br />like two dogs who hadn't seen water for days, we got there and<br />explained to Michelle that we just ran up "Heart-Break" hill which she<br />laughed at. It was all worth it though to get there at a reasonable<br />time so we could teach her. We got to teach Michelle about faith and<br />repentance and the spirit was felt strongly. Michelle-being an elderly<br />lady-has so much enthusiasm and energy when it comes to living the<br />gospel. We saw great miracles and Michelle did too. God is good and it<br />gave me a clear evidence of the power of faith. When we have faith,<br />anything can be accomplished so long as we are willing to act upon<br />that faith. A day later, we received a call from Michelle and she<br />wasn't too happy about something and she even went on to say that she<br />wasn't sure if she wanted to meet us anymore. You can imagine how<br />devastating that might have been for my companion and I. Sister Wang,<br />being out in the field for only so many months, came to realize the<br />importance of the love that you can feel for these people you meet.<br />Tears were shed and we felt a sorrow because of the love we felt for<br />our friend. I realize the sorrow that we as missionaries feel when our<br />friends might not accept the gospel is a sorrow that our Heavenly<br />Father probably feels everyday as He sees his children fall away. I'm<br />sure though that it is much bigger than what my companion and I felt.<br />I feel such a strong love for these people. It's grown and grown over<br />the course of my mission and I know that I would give up everything to<br />run and help these people just as the Saviour would do. The same day<br />that Michelle told us this, Sister Wang and I were about to get on a<br />bus and I realized that I didn't have my bus pass. We looked<br />everywhere and it was no where to be seen. Eventually I got a<br />replacement and it fairly cheap which was good. Before I got the<br />replacement bus pass though, we called Michelle and asked if she had<br />seen it. She mentioned she hadn't and said she'd look for it. An hour<br />or so later, she called us and said she had looked everywhere and was<br />worried that I couldn't find it. I told her it was ok and that I would<br />probably just get another one. Having the chat about the bus pass led<br />to a conversation on how she was doing. She had thought about it again<br />and she knew that she loved the gospel and didn't want us not to come<br />around and teach her so she apologized and we were able to set up a<br />return appointment! God truly did provide such a miracle that day even<br />though I lost my bus pass. It just goes to show that little things<br />that may make us stress or worried may all turn out for the better. :D<br />The week consisted of many small funny and miraculous moments. One<br />evening as my companion and I were walking to go and contact a friend,<br />it was getting dark and also rainy. One thing I've come to learn about<br />Brighton is that during dark and rainy moments, snails tend to come<br />out more. It's like the England version of a worm. More worms in Utah<br />come out when it rains and here, more snails tend to come out on the<br />sidewalks when it rains. It's probably worse though to have snails and<br />especially when it's dark. All you try to do is avoid stepping on them<br />because with snails, you know when you've stepped on one as you hear a<br />crunch sound. It just sends shivers up my spine just thinking about<br />it. Sister Wang and I decided to count how many snails there were in a<br />matter of two minutes on the sidewalk that we were walking on and we<br />counted 40! Some were in bunches of four, some in a bunch of<br />three....as if to scheme and say, "Hey guys, how do you think we can<br />get in the ways of people walking? Should we all get closer together<br />so they have no way of walking around us?" I've learned that here in<br />Brighton, I need to start talking a flashlight ("torch" as said in<br />England) every evening that it rains so I can avoid the snails. The<br />rest of the weekend, we got to see some great miracles. Sister Wang<br />and I decided to take an hour bus ride out to a place called<br />Portslade. This particular day it was raining so with umbrellas in<br />hand, we got off the bus and went to contact a less-active friend. We<br />walked for quite some time but finally made it to the set of flats<br />where they lived. As we rang the doorbell to her flat, we quickly<br />realized the doorbell didn't work. We rang another doorbell and over<br />the intercom, a lady said, "Hello?" We explained we were trying to<br />contact our friend and the lady knew her so she said, "I'll let you<br />in." She unlocked the main door for us and we were able to ascend the<br />the stairs and knock on the door of the person we were wanting to talk<br />to. Our less-active friend ended up not being home and a bit bummed<br />that we traveled all the way, we walked down the stairs and passed a<br />guy that was going up the stairs. Suddenly, I felt an impression to<br />stop him and so we did. We asked him if he knew who our friend was and<br />he said, "Yes. I'm her husband! She doesn't come home till later this<br />evening though so come back in the evening." The best part of it all<br />was that he wasn't a member but knew of our church and so we plan to<br />stop by again to visit the family which we are excited about! :) We<br />met some great potentials through street contacting, door knocking,<br />and banner contacting as well. We got to banner contact in a big main<br />park called the Level and a lot of people came up and asked us about<br />Christ and our beliefs. Sister Wang and I were able to meet a lady<br />from Jamaica and she wants to learn more so we have a return<br />appointment with her and I'm really excited for that. This lady has an<br />incredible faith in Jesus Christ and when we were talking to her, I<br />felt that she was truly prepared by Heavenly Father to receive this<br />message. What an incredible week. To top it all off, Sister Wang and I<br />got to do a hot pot night with the Chinese elders and some of the<br />friends being taught. We got to share the message as well afterwards<br />which went really good. Hot pot is hard to explain but basically it's<br />all this really good Chinese food put together in a pot of really good<br />sauce and boiling water. I was given compliments on the use of my<br />chopsticks so I think I seemed to fit in :) Sister Wang loved it too<br />because it made her think of all the food back in China. If the food<br />in China is like the food we had at this hot pot night.....I need to<br />go to China in the future. It was super fun to learn more about the<br />Chinese culture. I hope all of you have a great week! Love you lots!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-77202726059811647702016-08-31T12:08:00.004-07:002016-08-31T12:08:44.964-07:00The Gospel is the Greatest Treasure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello my dear family friends! What an eventful week once again. The<br />end of the last week, we traveled to Crawley and had our specialised<br />zone training with President Gubler, Sister Gubler, and the<br />assistants. It was a great training and the spirit was felt very<br />strongly. We talked about how we can be dedicated and give our time to<br />the Lord. The Lord has given us everything so we should do all that we<br />can to do our best. Something fun that we did as well was we practiced<br />finding approaches. The two assistants were roleplaying different<br />scenarios/people and each companionship needed to go up (in front of<br />all the missionaries-Super Scary!) and approach the "person" (who was<br />acted out by the assistant) and see if they would be willing to meet<br />with us. Sister Wang and I got up and it was pretty daunting, I won't<br />lie. No matter how long you've been out on your mission, you still<br />feel like you've only left the MTC at times and that's how Sister Wang<br />and I both felt. Luckily, the spirit guided us, calmed our nerves, and<br />despite a challenging roleplay that we were given, we felt good about<br />what we shared and felt we asked inspired questions to this "guy."<br />Afterwards, all of us missionaries would discuss what we could improve<br />on, what we did good, ect. It was a great exercise and it helped me to<br />learn a lot! That's what I love about these type of things....we come<br />together as missionaries-unified in one purpose to bring about the<br />Lord's work-and get to help each other to learn and grow. The rest of<br />the week consisted of some great miracles. We had met a mother last<br />week and she had us come back the next day. Her name is Lucy and she<br />is so nice. She has a young daughter, Vanessa, as well. The following<br />day, we knocked on the door and excitedly anticipated her opening the<br />door. She did and she said, "Come In!" (Words that I love to hear!).<br />We got to talk with her and get to know her better and then got to<br />teach her the restoration. This lady is actually from the Czech<br />Republic so we were able to get her a Book of Mormon in Czech and she<br />was really excited. As we got to share with her the message of the<br />restoration, I felt the spirit confirm to me that the lesson was going<br />well and that she too could feel the spirit. We got to set up a return<br />appointment and we are excited to continue to teach her! The week<br />continued and it consisted of a lot of finding but we found that as we<br />preserved and had faith, we would see more people who were interested.<br />At times it's hard because there are many who are atheists and have no<br />desire to know who God is but I've learned to love them no matter<br />what. I know that one more invitation from us is closer for them to<br />accept the Gospel than it would be if no one invited them. We ran into<br />a guy this past week who actually believed in God and was willing to<br />chat though he was not interested at all. At the end of our<br />conversation, he turned to me and asked me, "So are you Irish?" I had<br />to smile but also I had to make sure he asked what I thought he just<br />asked so I asked back, "Sorry, did you ask if I was Irish?" He<br />confirmed to me that this was what he had asked and I smiled and said<br />no. I gotta say that's the first time I've gotten that on my mission.<br />I'm not sure if some of the words to him came across as me having an<br />accent but if so, it must mean that I've been in England for a good<br />amount of time to start saying my words differently :) Oh the funny<br />moments! Something I loved about this week was we got a call from both<br />set of elders-the Chinese elders and the English elders with two<br />wonderful referrals. The Chinese elders told us about a lady named<br />Ruby who actually wanted to meet us sisters. The very same day, we got<br />to go to Ruby's and teach her the Restoration. She's amazing and is so<br />willing to find out for herself if the message is true. We are excited<br />to continue to teach her this week. The English elders had called us<br />as well and told us about a lady named Michelle. They thought it would<br />be easier for us if we could stop by so they gave us her address and<br />said that she was already expecting a visit from us. She was, in the<br />past a member, and she wanted to start returning back to church. We<br />knocked on Michelle's door, not sure what to expect, and an older 73<br />year old lady with big glasses and a big smile opened the door. She<br />let us in and we got talking to her. Oh how I adore this lady.<br />Michelle is one of the ladies who seems to be a 20 year old in a 73<br />year old body. She explained to us that she was listening to Mormon<br />tabernacle choir music and how much she loves it. She wanted to read<br />the Book of Mormon and she had already started the night before we<br />came. Sister Wang and I felt so blessed to have met her. As we got<br />discussing some of her questions, Michelle was explaining to us about<br />how small the print of the Book of Mormon was. I looked around and saw<br />what looked to be an iPad. I looked to her, pointed towards the iPad,<br />and asked, "Is this an IPad? If so, could I try to download an app for<br />you?" Michelle, with her gleeful and funny attitude said, "No it's a<br />kindle fire. If you could download the Book of Mormon, it would be a<br />Miracle!" Sister Wang and I laughed at Michelle's response. She's so<br />funny. I had her unlock it and within a matter of a seconds, we<br />searched in her search bar under the books that she could buy from<br />Amazon and sure enough, there was a Book of Mormon for free. She<br />clicked download and once it finished, we made the text size bigger<br />for Michelle so she could see. I just gotta say that when we did that,<br />Michelle's eyes widened and she looked as if she had received a £1,000<br />pounds! She said to us in exclamation, "Now would you look at that!<br />MIRACLE!" My heart immediately melted and I just felt such a strong<br />love for this lady. Wanting to change her life around, you can see<br />that already Michelle is exercising her faith in Jesus Christ.<br />Anything that we show to her about the gospel is treated as if she<br />were a little kid on Christmas Day receiving the best gift that she's<br />ever received. That to me is the definition of someone who treats the<br />Gospel as the greatest treasure. I know that a lot of my learning over<br />the course of my mission has come from the people I've met. I'm<br />grateful God placed Michelle in our path so I could learn from her. We<br />often will receive calls from Michelle explaining in excitement that<br />she just read a book about David O. Mackay or that she read her Book<br />of Mormon before she went to bed and prayed before going to bed. She<br />is such a doll and we love her for her great example to us. I hope<br />that as your week continues that you remember and hold dear to your<br />heart the little things that matter the most. I love you all! Have a<br />great week!<br />With love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-42120752818517238672016-08-25T13:23:00.000-07:002016-08-25T13:23:01.552-07:00 "How GREAT will be your joy...." <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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Hello everyone! I can't even begin to describe the joy that I am feeling at this time. A scripture in D&C 18:16 simply says, "And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my father, how GREAT will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" I might have mentioned earlier that a dear friend of ours in Redruth was taught by my companion and I and then continued to be taught by the elders in Redruth when we left. I had wondered if he ever did get baptized so our zone leaders called the Plymouth zone leaders and I received such wonderful news that 2 weeks ago, Robert had entered into the waters of Baptism! How great was my joy! Just as I was emailing now, I received an email unexpectedly from my previous companion, Sister Fromgren, who is still serving in Clapham, and she wrote, "Do you know what!!! We got a call informing that Begonia (an investigator Sister Fromgren and I had been working with) wants to get baptized this Saturday! I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am to be a part of this great work. Sister Fromgren continued to inform me as well that two recent converts, Ada and Brenda, had received their patriarchal blessings and are doing so well as well as Sally. I am truly overcome with love, joy, and amazement at how much God does truly provide. Being an instrument in His hands is already such a blessing but seeing the great harvest bring to pass as well adds even more to the blessings we've received. It's a witness to us all that while the results aren't all sudden and in the time that we want it---they do come if we have faith and trust. Sister Wang and I have been working to increase our teaching pool and while some days brought lots of opposition or "no's" from many people, we saw so many miracles. We were able to stop by a member's home and speak with him and his wife about some goals that they wanted to set to do missionary work. This brother wanted to invite a friend to the ward activity and not only that, but he had already invited a work colleague of his to come to Sacrament. We felt the spirit strongly as we were able to discuss with him the importance of this work and felt an excitement that came from him as he accepted to do both his goals. Something I've truly seen is that missionary work cannot happen without the members. We feel such a gratitude for this ward as they are so willing to reach out to our friends and help them. We got to see this member's friend come out to sacrament meeting and she seemed to really enjoy it. Many moments this week consisted of lots of finding but as we did so, we got to a see a number of miracles. A few of them are listed here: </div>
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1. As we waited for us a bus that was about 20 minutes late, Sister Wang and I got talking to a lady named Vatiana and her daughter. We shared with them more about the Book of Mormon and gave them a pass along card. She was very interested and was happy to find out more about our church. As we said goodbye, Vatiana's 12-13 year old daughter gave us each an unexpected big hug. We were a bit surprised but we were happy that she was able to meet missionaries so she can remember what our church is about. </div>
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2. It was a hot day during a particular part of the week. We needed to get information regarding some train tickets and as we were street contacting along the way, a mom pushing her stroller was coming towards us. We stopped her and shared with her about eternal families. She seemed to be in a bit of a rush but she said, "Can you come by tomorrow?" We smiled, said yes, and were able to write down her address and told her we'd come tomorrow to teach her.</div>
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3. While park contacting, we got to talk to many people and most were receptive to what we had to say. In that day, we ended up giving out three Book of Mormons to people who really wanted one and who wanted to pray and ask God to give them a witness. </div>
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4. While looking at the Areabook and through the phone, We selected a good number of people to contact. These people had met missionaries in the past. As we did this, two of the people we called wanted us to come share this message with them so we got to set return appointments. We also knocked on two potentials' doors and both set up a time for us to come back and teach them! What great miracles!</div>
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I can't even begin to write all the miracles I've seen throughout this week. If I did that, I could perhaps fill a novel. Miracles don't just come in a great big sum but they come through every little moment and opportunity that God gives to us. Something that Sister Wang and I have been doing each night is pulling out small notebooks and recording the miracles we saw for that day. We also write down the funny moments, a reason for why we love our companion, and the last one we don't fail to do is to tell each other why we love Christ. I think it's something I want to continue throughout my life actually. I've noticed that even on those days that seem bad, we recognize that we saw great miracles provided for us by the hand of the Lord and we find ourselves rejoicing and thanking our Heavenly Father for giving us that day. I am grateful to be here on my mission. I can't imagine my life without it. Never forget the small and simple things because they are the things that bring to pass the greater things. Love you all!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Burtis </div>
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Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-38015810270775414462016-08-17T09:30:00.001-07:002016-08-17T09:30:21.693-07:00Another tool to given to bring about the great Harvest!<div>
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! What a week! It feels like just yesterday that we had the previous preparation day but looking back at the planner, so much took place! After our last week's preparation day, a flood of miracles came! Sister Wang and I traveled over to Hove and were street contacting to a potential. We talked to a guy who said he was Buddhist but said he would be interested to learn more. We then continued to street contact and met a guy on a bench eating his chips (fries) and started talking to him. It led to a great discussion and eventually we were able to give him a Book of Mormon. We got to the street of the potential's home and knocked on the door. As we did so, a lady named Pendo opened the door and we were able to ask her if she had been taught by missionaries before. She told us that she did and then asked us if we wanted to come in and say hello to her two twin daughters who are around 15! We were so excited and we were able to schedule a return appointment with them. What a miracle! The following day, the Eastbourne sisters got to come over and stay in Brighton with us because of the Zone Training we were going to have. It was very fun to get to know Sister Li and Sister Lowry and we got to spend the evening playing Uno with them, sharing miracles, and talking about our missions. Our Zone Training consisted of the training needed for online proselyting and we were all excited to how it could help us to bring about the great harvest. To be honest, it was a bit of a shock when they told us after zone training, "Ok, you can now go and start using facebook!" I was a bit nervous. After over a year of not using facebook, suddenly a sentence like that seemed to me super weird to hear on my mission. I won't lie, it took me some time to even click the login button that would open up a whole new world of online proselyting. It was a bit strange and hard for me to get used to but now I am coming to a better understanding of how this can really help us in the mission. Already, there are people away on vacations and too busy but willing to add us on Facebook and skype us. We know that this will help the whole mission to continue to bring about the great harvest. It's amazing how the Lord has trusted a group of missionaries to take this worldwide and share the gospel with everyone as we bear our testimonies through messages and posts. Sister Wang and I continued to find more people throughout the course of this week. On one particular day, we were riding the bus, coming back from finding in the park and we started talking to a guy on the bus. The guy expressed that he wasn't interested so we thanked him, wished him a good day, and then looked for others that we could talk to. As we did so, a guy several seats back, repeatedly said, "Girls! Girls!" We thought it might have been a parent talking to his children but soon we came to find out that he was talking to us. This guy came up and sat in the row behind us and said, "I overheard your conversation with the guy and I was curious to what the book was that you were sharing." With the Lord's help and the spirit's assistance, we were able to share with him our testimony and he expressed interest in learning more. God is good! I love this work! We have had some great miracles and great adventures! One evening, Sister Wang and I treked through a wooded forest to find a road and that was quite fun! We joked about how we'd find a squirrel to share the Gospel with. While we never did find that squirrel, we did manage to find a couple cats who were very friendly and came up and approached us after many people said no to our message. :) I am grateful for the great tools that God has given us and for the opportunity I have to be a missionary. I hope you all have a great week! </div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Burtis <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The beautiful land of Brighton<br />
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when everyone says no to our message, the cats come and comfort <br />us :)<br />
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Funny little store called Choccy Woccy DooDah located in Brighton. The<br />cakes and everything is made out of chocolate. It's pretty cool! :)<br />
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<tr><td>Part 7 </td><td>text/plain</td><td align="center">
<a href="http://digisnet.mail.everyone.net/email/scripts/attach.pl/uid=77135&pn=7&noInline=1&folder=INBOX/Part%207"><span style="color: green;">Save</span></a></td><td align="center"> </td></tr>
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<tr><td><pre>Had a quick chance last Preparation day to explore Brighton pier and
the seafront. :)</pre>
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beautiful sunset in Brighton<br />my amazing companion, Sister Wang and I<br />
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Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-15039208856450462822016-08-10T10:42:00.002-07:002016-08-10T10:42:31.906-07:00 Developing a love for Brighton <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello! I hope the summer months are continuing to treat you all well.<br />Brighton has been blessed to be able to have some great weather this<br />past week and we hope it stays. This past week and a half or so has<br />been filled with many different things. I'm trying to think where to<br />even start. At the beginning of last week, Sister Wang and I were<br />blessed to be able to teach some people. We had went finding a week or<br />two back and got to meet a university student named Will. Will is very<br />open-minded and was very receptive. We got to go with a member to<br />teach him and we were able to feel the spirit strongly as we testified<br />of how he (Will) could come to discover for himself which church was<br />right and if the message we shared with him was true. We invited him<br />to baptism if he were to find out if this message was true and also if<br />he would be willing to read the Book of Mormon and he said yes to<br />both. What a miracle! Later in the week, Sister Wang and I traveled<br />out to a place called Hove. We had never been there before but we got<br />on the bus and made our way out to there. We followed the map to go<br />and contact a former investigator and as we go to do so, we<br />miscalculated how long it would take for us to get there. We didn't<br />think it would take long at all but what the map fails to tell you is<br />if there are hills or not. Brighton is filled with quite a lot of<br />hills and roads that curve and weave around so by the time we approach<br />the house of this person, an hour or two had passed by us. Out of<br />breath after just having climbed a big hill that seemed to be never<br />ending, we knocked on the door with hope and surety that this lady<br />would be there. A man answered the door and told us that she wasn't<br />in. You could have probably imagined what our face expressions might<br />have looked like. We sighed heavily, thanking the guy, and said we'd<br />come back another time. As we got on the thin road to get back to the<br />main road, a lady was walking towards us. Taking this opportunity, we<br />took the time to stop and talk to her. As we asked her if she would be<br />willing to experiment upon reading the Book of Mormon, she replied,<br />"Sure, why not?" Our long trek up the hill that we had just taken<br />seemed to be forgotten with a matter of seconds after she said that.<br />We excitedly told her that we could meet her another time and she<br />agreed. God does truly provide! Our district was able to have district<br />meeting this past week at the senior couple's home and then we had a<br />district lunch afterwards which was fun. During this district meeting,<br />we got told a few things including that the mission would be now using<br />online proselyting via Facebook, Skype, messenger, ect. to teach our<br />investigators the gospel. We believe this will give us a greater<br />opportunity to stay in contact with our friends from this area even<br />more. Another big change too was the change of preparation day. We<br />usually have accounting calls with our district leader on Sunday<br />evenings but since we are working to leave the Sunday evenings more to<br />proselyting, accounting has been changed to Monday and preparation day<br />is changed to Wednesday. Despite changes, I feel that these things<br />will truly help us to move the work forward. I trust the Lord and<br />trust that He knows what is best for us. I'm so grateful to be able to<br />be here in Brighton. There are many friendly people that even though<br />they don't believe in God, will politely say they aren't interested.<br />It's not to say that there is no opposition but I'm grateful for the<br />people we've been able to run into and for the miracles we have been<br />able to see! I love getting to know the members here in Brighton. Each<br />of them have welcomed us into their ward family and it makes us feel<br />an even greater love for the people. This past weekend, Sister Wang<br />and I traveled down to Sutton for exchanges with the STL, Sister<br />Couper. We stayed in Sutton for three days and got to see some great<br />miracles as we spent the days finding. Something I really loved was<br />being able to work with Sister Couper who's from Scotland and also<br />Sister Cassidy who also from Scotland. It makes me want to visit<br />Scotland even more especially too because my dad served his mission<br />there. Working with the two Scottish sisters was a lot of fun and we<br />even got to go to their ward, the Epsom ward. We didn't know anyone<br />there but suddenly a lady came and gave us a loving hug and we<br />recognised her as one of the sisters of the Brighton ward.<br />Immediately, we felt great love and we almost felt that we were back<br />in our area. It made me realise that though I've only been in Brighton<br />for a couple of weeks now, I've developed a great love for this area<br />and people. I love this work and treasure every moment I have here on<br />my mission. God truly knows what we need and always provides the<br />experiences for us in order to receive the lessons He wants us to<br />learn. I hope you all have a great week and continue to enjoy the<br />summer!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-42702780818675183002016-08-01T09:28:00.002-07:002016-08-01T09:28:20.779-07:00Alarms and Wandering Around<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello everyone! This week has been filled with many funny adventures<br />and miracles! To start out, we (Sister Wang and I) are settling in to<br />Brighton and getting to know more and more of the area. We started out<br />by exploring and getting to know how the buses worked and whenever we<br />got lost or found ourselves wandering, we would need to use our maps<br />or call the elders that serve here in Brighton for the directions.<br />Nonetheless, we are surviving :) Brighton is much different than my<br />other areas. It does take me back to the days of Cornwall (my first<br />area) because of the countryside and greenery but as well, it has a<br />lot of different things too. Brighton has a very big city center area<br />where there are lots of shopping and touristy things. Lots of people<br />come here for the summer so it makes sense that there are a lot of<br />shops all around. The Brighton Pier is near the shopping center and as<br />well as the marine. I don't have pictures of them just yet because we<br />will be going to explore more of it today and next Monday but I'll<br />send them out soon. One of our first days here, Sister Wang and I were<br />able to experience lots of different miracles. In order to get to the<br />chapel (unlike Clapham, where we had a direct route to the chapel), we<br />needed to take a bus to Main Street area and then another bus towards<br />the chapel. We arrived at the chapel and went to go contact a referral<br />that was given to us by Sally, our recent convert from Clapham. We got<br />there and decided to knock a few doors and just before we got to the<br />referral's door, we knocked on another door. A guy opened the door and<br />asked if we wanted to come in after we explained who we were. He was<br />religious himself but was willing to listen to what we had to say.<br />Unfortunately we couldn't come in because we didn't have a member with<br />us but we were able to make a return appointment for this week. We<br />texted him a day later and asked if he had looked at our website and<br />he texted us back saying that he hadn't yet but would do before the<br />appointment! It's such a miracle when someone texts you back saying<br />they are planning for the meeting time still :) After talking to this<br />guy, we needed to head back to our flat. As we got on the bus, we both<br />sat down, and within a matter of seconds, a lady leaned towards us and<br />asked, "Excuse me, do you guys know where I can get a copy of the Book<br />of Mormon?" We grinned with big smiles and told her that we could give<br />her one which we ended up doing. We have continued to meet a lot of<br />great people and some in which we have return appointments with! God<br />is a God of miracles. No matter where you go, there are people<br />prepared! We have faith that these people we have met are searching<br />for answers to questions and we look forward to sharing with them our<br />message. A funny incident that happened to Sister Wang and I was only<br />a couple days into Brighton. We had been traveling to the chapel and<br />once we got there, we unlocked the door just as our district leader<br />had explained to us to do earlier that day. As soon as I put the key<br />in the door and unlocked it, a loud alarm went off. Sister Wang and I<br />panicked a bit because we thought maybe we did something wrong. I<br />honestly thought at this point that the police or something would show<br />up and arrest us all because the alarm went off. The alarm got louder<br />and louder and I locked the door back up with the key but it wouldn't<br />turn off. At this point, we both hear a guy yelling, "Ey!<br />Ey!"....clearly indicating that he was irritated by the noise. We<br />weren't able to see where the yelling was coming from but at this<br />point, that was the least of our worries. We quickly called our<br />district leader, Elder Mahaffey, and as soon as we explained what<br />happened, he laughed. Apparently these type of alarms are normal in<br />the northern part of England where he is from and so he didn't think<br />too much about it. For me, in my past two areas, there was never an<br />alarm with the chapel so we didn't know what was going on. Eventually,<br />we were given instructions on how to deactivate it and to our relief,<br />the loud alarm turned off. What a laugh! Now when Sister Wang and I go<br />to the chapel, we are deathly afraid of opening the doors. ;) The area<br />is getting more and more familiar to us and we are taking it day by<br />day. We are grateful for these learning experiences and we feel our<br />love growing for these people of Brighton. We were able to meet the<br />ward members yesterday during Church and it is a very nice ward. There<br />was a lady named Patty from Columbia who invited us for lunch to have<br />tacos with her and when we were there, she taught us how to make<br />Guacamole! It was a lot of fun and we feel that we are becoming part<br />of the ward family already. I'm grateful to be out here and I know<br />that God has a great plan in store for all of us. Love you all! Have a<br />great week!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-66819730300379043782016-07-27T12:36:00.002-07:002016-07-27T12:36:35.551-07:00Adieu to the Southern City of London<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello everyone! I hope you have had a great week! I was pretty close<br />to not being able to email for this past week but thankfully was given<br />time now to let you all know that I'm still alive and doing well! Just<br />before I forget, for those who want to send letters, we have the new<br />Brighton address (Letters sent to this address will get to me much<br />faster than if you send it to the mission office) :<br /><br />43 Bourne Court<br />London Road<br />Brighton, WYK, BN1 8QQ<br /><br />This past week carried many different adventures and experiences for<br />me. Sister Wang, Sister Fromgren, and I knew that our time as a tri<br />was coming close to an end so we did all that we could to organise<br />things, see the people that we needed to, ect. We were able to see<br />many miracles. At the beginning of this last week, Sister Fromgren and<br />I were able to do one last exchange with the sisters from Peckham. I<br />was able to go to Sister Stephenson (my MTC companion) and we were<br />able to reflect back on the experiences we have had in Wandsworth and<br />on our missions, see some miracles and we were able to visit Beognia<br />(investigator). Begonia is from Peru and we have been teaching her for<br />some time now. She is so close to baptism and very prepared. It was<br />sad though that she wanted to wait a little bit longer because it<br />meant I wouldn't be there for it. Sister Stephenson and I were able to<br />come by and I was able to say my goodbyes to her but as we got<br />talking, Begonia said something that made me smile. Begonia was just<br />about to leave to Spain and has been so busy trying to balance<br />preparing for that, starting a business of her own, and working at a<br />job so she wasn't quite sure when she wanted to get baptised. She<br />mentioned though that as soon as she got back from Spain which would<br />last for about 10 days, she would make her decision for the date of<br />baptism. It's hard to not be able to see those who you have taught<br />being baptized but it's a witness that seeds are planted and they will<br />grow. Another witness of this was when I got to the temple (for<br />training Preparation). An elder (who was departing to go home) from my<br />old area came up to me and said, "Did you hear about Robert!?" Robert,<br />from Cornwall, was someone that Sister Hamann and I went up to and<br />talked with about the gospel. He was walking down the hill towards a<br />shop while we were heading to teach an investigator. We were able to<br />teach Robert and he continuously came to church and was working to get<br />married to his girlfriend but we never got to see him baptized when I<br />was there. The elders continued to work with him and I was just told<br />that Robert got married and this upcoming weekend, not only him, but<br />his wife would be getting baptized as well! My joy was full and I was<br />so excited to receive the news! You truly never know the lives you can<br />impact by just opening your mouth and sharing the gospel with them. We<br />may never see the results but it was great to know that there are<br />seeds being planted! The last moments in my second area were bitter<br />sweet. Some of the members had us over for dinner and some visits and<br />you really do come to realise how much you grow and learn from the<br />members, the area, the people you teach, ect. as you are about to<br />leave the area you served in for 7 months. Clapham will always have a<br />special place in my heart and it's a place I will never forget. There<br />were many people to talk to in Clapham and while some days were tough<br />and it seemed like no one wanted to talk to us, I recognized that it<br />shaped me to have even more faith, to become even stronger, and to<br />turn to my Saviour more than I ever have before. My last moments with<br />Sister Fromgren were wonderful. She taught me so much and I'll never<br />forget the impact that she had on me. I love all my companions<br />including my current companion Sister Wang. We had a funny moment<br />where one time last week, Sister Wang felt a bit down and sad because<br />she missed her family, MTC, ect. so Sister Fromgren and I go to<br />comfort her and while sitting on the bed together and talking about<br />random things, Sister Wang suddenly jumps up and screams,<br />"SPIDER-MAN!" (She didn't know quite yet to call it a spider).<br />Confused at the time, Sister Fromgren and I looked around and saw that<br />she was pointing to a spider (which actually ended up being a<br />mosquito). Sister Fromgren and I laughed for a tiny bit and then<br />jumped up on the bed, pretending to be super heros, and saying, "Don't<br />worry, we'll save you!" It was quite the funny moment! Many more<br />moments of laughter took place all throughout this week. The time<br />finally came for us to go to the temple, have a temple session, and<br />then Sister Fromgren and I received our training to be trainers. What<br />was fun was that Sister Wang got to be with us throughout all of this.<br />We were also at the temple with the departing missionaries and that<br />felt strange. When I packed my bags and left Clapham and took my bags<br />to the temple to go to Brighton, I felt so strange and it felt almost<br />like I was going home. I'm grateful though I have another area to<br />serve in and to devote all my time and attention to the work of the<br />Lord. I'm truly grateful for this work. It wasn't easy to say goodbye<br />to Sister Fromgren or my previous area but I trust the Lord will guide<br />my footsteps. It's scary having Sister Wang and I going into another<br />area that we both have never worked in but all I can do is trust and<br />have faith. I know in time, I will come to a better understanding of<br />why I am called to Brighton. We have now gotten to our flat (which is<br />very nice and big because it was used by a senior couple before we<br />came in) and the elders here are very nice and helpful in telling us<br />who everyone is and where we can go to get to different places.<br />Brighton is beautiful! It is much greener than Clapham and I love<br />seeing the trees, nice country side view, flowers, and beach. :) I<br />look forward to this new adventure! Love you all, have a great week!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-83250902626005850222016-07-18T14:29:00.003-07:002016-07-18T14:29:38.187-07:00Being an Instrument in His Hands<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello everyone! I can't believe it's coming to be near the end of<br />July. The summer months are passing by quickly and threatening to take<br />away the hot weather that my companions and I have been enjoying this<br />past week. The life of a tri is a fun one! Sister Fromgren, Sister<br />Wang, and I are all enjoying it. It's funny to see members or<br />sometimes even people on the streets who know missionaries look at us<br />in confusion and then ask why there are three of us. I sometimes<br />respond, "In the mouth of two or THREE witnesses shall every word be<br />established." (2 Corinthians 13:1) This brings us a smile to their<br />faces and then we explain to them our situation of how Sister Wang and<br />I will be moving to Brighton soon so our tri is, unfortunately,<br />temporary. I love the life of a tri though. We all help each other,<br />lift each other up, feel more confident on the streets-knowing that we<br />have an even greater support when bearing testimony, ect. We were able<br />to be a part of many miracles this week and I'm grateful to be able to<br />receive more and more witnesses of how God is truly hastening his<br />work. Our first miracle, happened after Preparation Day. The three of<br />us were walking to go and contact a less-active at her home. We<br />knocked several times but no answer. After several attempts, Sister<br />Fromgren and Sister Wang turned around and were walking back towards<br />the street. For myself, I was following behind them. Sister Fromgren<br />got talking to a lady on the street and Sister Wang joined them and I<br />was about to do the same when the less-active lady suddenly opened her<br />door. So there we were, two of us talking to the lady on the street,<br />and the other talking to the less-active. The awkward moment happened<br />though when this lady I was talking to said we could come in and teach<br />her. I looked back to my friends and saw they were still talking to<br />the lady of the street. I excused myself for a moment and helped them<br />finish testifying and finding out if this lady was interested. She<br />wasn't too keen on giving out her number or address but she was<br />willing to look more into our website to see what we were about. After<br />that, I informed my two fellow companions that we had a lesson to<br />teach. As we approached Georgina (the less-active that I was talking<br />to), she let us in. We were able to testify to her about the<br />importance of prayer and reading the Book of Mormon and the spirit was<br />felt very strongly. Towards the end of the lesson, Georgina simply<br />said, "I know I need to start coming back to church. Just before you<br />knocked on my door, I was watching TV and something about the church<br />came up and the thought crossed my mind that I really needed to come<br />back, and then suddenly you knocked on my door." I know that's truly<br />not a coincidence given from our Heavenly Father. I love being able to<br />be an instrument in His hands and to go where He'd have me go to help<br />His children. The rest of the week consisted of an amazing zone<br />conference (the first one that Sister Wang went to). Sister Wang loved<br />it and as did I. We discussed the importance of being accountable to<br />the Lord each night as we reflected what we did to serve Him that day.<br />We were reminded the importance of setting goals and how when we set<br />those goals, we should covenant to the Lord that we will do them and<br />then account that evening with the Lord on how we did. I was able to<br />go on my second to last exchange with the Mitcham sisters and that<br />went great. I love being to help set goals with the different sisters<br />and them helping me to learn and grow. Sister Lulab, Sister Wang, and<br />I were on the exchange together and as we got knocking doors and<br />teaching, we were able to meet many people who seemed so close to<br />being interested but said no in the end. As we walked down a street<br />towards our bus, we saw a delivery guy standing by his bike. We<br />approached him and introduced ourselves. At first, he simply said that<br />he was completely atheist. Something that I learned though over the<br />course of my mission and from reading the Preach My Gospel manual is<br />that when we testify, the spirit can testify to them more that what we<br />say is true. We testified to how we came to know God for ourselves and<br />he continued to listen. In the end, he ended up wanting a Book of<br />Mormon and we were able to set a return appointment. What a miracle!<br />Another fun thing that the three of us got to do while being on the<br />exchange is going to do service for our recent convert, Sally. Sally<br />was holding some big party for her birthday but needed help to prepare<br />the food. She had us first cut potatoes and then she asked us to<br />cut....onions. Onions and I don't get along too well because you know<br />what happens when you cut too many onions. Something that was really<br />funny though was that Sally told us that she heard if we put spoons in<br />our mouth while chopping onions, we won't cry as much. We tried it and<br />I think it worked? It didn't mean though that I didn't cry. I still<br />had some tears running down my face after chopping two or three<br />onions. It was quite funny to see all three of us sisters chopping<br />onions with spoons in our mouth. I look forward to the many adventures<br />in the coming weeks. It won't be easy to leave Clapham and I will miss<br />many of the people that I've been able to meet while serving here but<br />I trust that God has a great plan in store. Have a wonderful week!<br />Love you all!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-32556959304671170642016-07-11T13:04:00.001-07:002016-07-11T13:04:22.347-07:00 Relieved to feel free from the darkness<pre style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 13.33px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">I hope everyone has been able to have a great week! Summers always
seem to bring a sense of adventure and fun! For some who may not know,
within a matter of a phone call from my mission president, President
Gubler, Sister Fromgren and I were told at the beginning of last week
that I would be training and that this new missionary would be coming
in the next day to serve with us in a tri here in Clapham for three
weeks and then this new missionary and I would be traveling to
Brighton to serve there. It's quite some unexpected yet adventurous
and exciting news! That next day, Sister Fromgren and I went to (what
would be my last) Mission Leadership Council and we were able to
discuss the importance of the work, how we could use the mission
training plan better, and how we as a mission could do to accomplish
what the Lord wants done. Towards the end of the meeting, my heart
started beating a bit faster, I got a bit more nervous, and knew
within the next moments, I would be meeting my new companion. After
MLC concluded, President Gubler had the two new missionaries come
into the room, an Elder from Thailand and our new sister from China,
and we were able to welcome them. As soon as I saw Sister Wang
(pronounced like Wong), I felt that this was right and that I would be
learning many great things from her. I was right about that. Sister
Wang, though not knowing all English words, knows a good amount and is
very smart and willing to learn. She is so humble and so sweet and
very caring. Being in a tri has been such an adventure. You would
think maybe it's hard because you now have three heads deciding
instead of two but rather we seemed more solidified in our decisions
and feel more confident on the streets. The day after Sister Wang came
into the area, we (Sister Fromgren and I) needed to go to DLC and
present what we learned at MLC to the district leaders. Sister Wang
was a bit confused at why there were so many meetings and I don't
blame her. We ended up having a lot of dinner appointments too her
first couple of days that she was here. It all went well though and as
the days proceeded, things got easier for Sister Wang and she is doing
great adjusting to the missionary life. Something that was fun too was
that one of the members took us out to a Korean restaurant and that is
something I haven't done actually since I've been on my mission. They
cook the food in front of you and it was really cool. Sister Wang was
able to show me the different types of food and how to eat the certain
meal that we ordered and that was fun. We were also able to do some
service for one of our sister missionaries who just recently got
injured and it was fun to be able to go and surprise her and see how
she was doing. I've recognised that we are the most happiest when
forget ourselves and serve others. It's something I want to continue
to apply all throughout my life. This week brought adventures and
learning opportunities but also a few oppositions for us as well but
we didn't let it bring us down. An investigator we had been teaching
suddenly stopped having contact with us and when we went to see them,
they opened their door and just simply said that they couldn't commit.
It's hard to hear those words and especially as we continue through
our missions, we really discover how Important and how crucial this
message that we share with them is. We continue to pray that this
person will soon return to learn more and all we can do is trust that
the Lord will provide and that He will help us find more of His
children that He had prepared. Well just this past Sunday, we saw
something funny and some miracles as well. On Sunday, Sister Fromgren,
Sister Wang, and I headed to the chapel about an hour before church
started for correlation meeting. We met the elders and the ward
mission leader and then discussed the progress of the work. Sally, a
recent convert and ward missionary, came in for the meeting and
mentioned to us that on the way to the upstairs classroom, she saw a
bird in the hallway near the staircase. We all looked at her with
surprise and she continued to explain how she just saw it sitting
there on the windowsill. After correlation meeting, all five of us
missionaries headed out into the corridor/hallway and sure enough, a
white and black bird was sitting there looking at all of us with its
small eyes perhaps wondering what we were doing. We discussed how we
could get it out and so with that, we went and found some large black
garbage bags, tore them into a blanket type thing and the elders,
Elder Saliva and Elder Hulleman, tried their very best to try and grab
it gently and take it outside. However this bird just kept flying back
and forth, back and forth, and the elders couldn't seem to get it.
Sister Fromgren and Sister Wang didn't take a liking to this bird and
were in the corner, screaming a little bit anytime that the bird would
fly past their heads in fear that it would leave them a present on
their hair ;) After a while, as I tried to wave my hands back and
forth so the bird wouldn't keep flying past us, it seemed like there
was no way for us to get this little creature outside to where it
belonged. We tried opening the doors on the bottom level of the chapel
but it wouldn't fly past that at all and had no idea where to go.
Eventually the bird got tired and seemed to be breathing heavily. One
of the Elders didn't seem to really want to catch it in fear that it
would kill us all so I asked for the garbage bag and set after this
bird who I noticed was getting pretty worn out by all the flying. One
of the elders came from one side and I came from the other and gently,
I was able to lay my garbage bag over it and scoop it up in my hands.
I could feel it's little body breathing and moving up and down and
with that, I made sure that it had breathing room and quickly ran down
the stairs of the hallway, through the outside doors, and released the
bird. It was a fun feeling to release it because you could almost feel
it being relieved to feel the fresh air. Just as I released it, many
of the members were coming in for school and they were curious to why
I just held a bird in my hands and then released it. We explained the
story and then headed back to the hallway to clean the little presents
on the banister and window sill that this little bird so graciously
left for us. It was a funny little adventure but it also got me
thinking about how scared that little bird might have felt not being
able to feel the fresh air, not being able to sense any hope in its
life, not being able to get out. In relation to the gospel, I just
think maybe perhaps that is how people on the streets feel. They feel
that there is no hope in life, no way to know how to be free from
spiritual darkness. It made me realise that perhaps they feel as this
bird did when it caught the first glimpse of the sun or felt the fresh
air on its little body knowing that all would be OK as they hear the
gospel. Sister Fromgren, Sister Wang, and I all have a great desire to
share the gospel and I'm grateful that I am able to be here to give
everyone that opportunity. This past Sunday evening, while riding on
the tube, we met a really nice lady named Grace. As we got talking to
her, she expressed interest and with that, we have a return
appointment with her. God is good and He will never give up on His
children. I love this work and I have loved being able to have the
wonderful companions, members, and those we meet, to help me to learn
and to grow. I l love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Burtis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-40507963673817197772016-07-04T17:31:00.001-07:002016-07-04T17:31:21.073-07:00Let the Holy Spirit GuideHappy 4th of July to my fellow friends and family back in America! Unfortunately England doesn't celebrate this holiday for reasons unknown to me yet ;) I'll see if I can't get them to change their minds and start having red, white, and blue colors all around the city on this particular day. I don't think it would be too bad because technically, they have the same colors as us! :) England is still so good to me though and I love being able to be here to serve around these people. This week has come and gone but yet so much takes place. This week consisted of Sister Fromgren and I doing a lot of planning for our zone training. The zone leaders and us would be preparing up until last Thursday and then as a leadership, give presentations, practice roleplays, and meet the needs of the missionaries here in Wandsworth. I love being able to help plan this training because I learned so much from it. It's just as if someone is asked to speak in sacrament or teach a lesson, usually you hear them say that they learned more from preparing it than from actually presenting it. Zone training came along and it went very well! The spirit was felt very strongly and many of the missionaries, including us, received answers to our prayers. Something that occurred to me was the importance of having the spirit. There were several occasions this week that I felt the spirit very strongly. One of those occasions was during zone training. Sister Fromgren and I were giving a presentation about studying our scriptures and the importance of how it builds our faith. As we gave this presentation, we felt the spirit testify to us that this message is so true. The Book of Mormon is crucial for our time and helps us to remember our purpose here on this earth. Our second occasion was with Begonia. Our investigator, Begonia, has been really searching diligently to find out if the Book of Mormon is true. She is so close to making her decision to be baptized and as we work with her, we ponder and pray about what we could share with her. We felt impressed to talk to her about baptism even if it has been talked about before. This time, we really worked on trying to focus on asking her inspired questions and taking moments to let silence fill the air and let the spirit guide. As Sister Fromgren and I did this, I felt the spirit more strongly than I had in some time. It was truly amazing how Begonia was opening up to us more and was willing to be baptized even though she's not sure of which date yet. We were able to invite her to pray about this decision and she said she would. Sister Fromgren and I have been really working on trying to be able to continually improve in our finding and teaching skills and we feel even more guidance from our Heavenly Father as we strive to be the best we can be. This week, we were able to go to a park in Vauxhall (near the border of our area) and try to talk to families. Because the weather was nice and it was a Saturday, many people were there. I won't lie though, it's pretty daunting to randomly go up to people in the park and start talking to them about the Gospel but once we started, it became less scary. We were walking down a pathway when we suddenly stopped a couple walking our way. We said hello, introduced ourselves, and got talking. The husband was from Ecuador and his wife was from a spanish country as well. They mentioned to us how they had missionaries teach them several years ago and how they couldn't seem to find the answer to whether the Book of Mormon was true. We felt impressed to write down a scripture on our pass-along card and gave it to them. We continued to discuss more and just as we were about to say good-bye to them, the Ecuadorian husband turned to us and asked us with sincerity if we would be willing to say a prayer with them. Normally we are the ones to ask people if we could say a prayer for their day but it was amazing to see the love that this couple had for their Saviour, Jesus Christ and their willingness to pray. We said the prayer and at the end of the prayer, the man said that he knew that this was no coincidence that we met. Unfortunately the couple doesn't live in our area but I hope that he will be able to be taught by the missionaries and find out the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon for himself. This week has been filled with lots of many learning opportunities, lots of finding, lots of joy, some opposition (but what's life without opposition right?) and many moments of gratitude for God's divine plan. I love this work. I often reflect and find myself asking, How is this Gospel NOT true? I love the knowledge of having a Heavenly Father who never leaves us alone and is with us 24/7. I hope you all, have a wonderful week, and a Happy 4th of July!<br />
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Love,</div>
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Sister Burtis </div>
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Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-68842462731592071142016-06-27T14:20:00.002-07:002016-06-27T14:20:29.554-07:00One Soul is Worth It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello everyone! Another week comes and goes. I probably should say<br />first off, that I think the London undergrounds tube are cursed or I<br />just seem to have bad luck. My companion and I were coming back from a<br />meeting in Peckham and going to an dinner appointment with a member<br />and as we did so, the tube got delayed for a very long time. What had<br />happened was that, the underground train in front of us had broken<br />down. Not knowing that, Sister Fromgren and I got on the underground<br />train thinking it would be leaving any second like it normally does.<br />As we squeezed ourselves through the many people all standing in the<br />section of the tube, more and more people came in and it was very<br />tight and become very hot. This time of day just happened to be when<br />everyone was returning from work and here in London, that means that<br />there are a lot of people. It took about over 30 minutes until the<br />underground train in front us was able to depart. Sister Fromgren and<br />I were relieved to be able to get out of there and we were able to<br />make it to the dinner appointment with an very understanding member.<br />The rest of the week seemed to be great overall though. At the<br />beginning of the week, we were able to visit our investigators and our<br />recent converts and they are doing great. Ada, Sally, and Brenda<br />(recent converts) are all very faithful and love to participate in<br />their callings and as members of the church. Ada wasn't able to attend<br />church this past week because she wasn't feeling well and I was able<br />to see a great example of Christ-like love as the Relief Society<br />president and her husband as well as the Relief Society secretary went<br />over to visit Ada after church to see how she was doing. Sister<br />Fromgren and I were also able to go over and visit her with the three<br />others and it was a great experience. Not only did we visit with her<br />but the Relief Society President's husband was able to administer the<br />sacrament to her in her home. I had never had the opportunity of<br />seeing that before until now and when it took place, the spirit was<br />felt very strongly. Ada's face lit up as she partook of the bread and<br />water and it made me happy that Ada who was sad she couldn't attend<br />church, was still able to feel a part of it. It got me to reflect on<br />the stories that were told in General Conference and in ensign<br />articles about how one person was either not passed the bread and<br />water to or they ran out and how they would still take the time to<br />bless everything again for that one person so that person would be<br />able to partake of the sacrament. I am given a strong witness that the<br />Saviour would do the same for all of us. Even if we were the only ones<br />to live on this earth, He would have died and suffered for our sins so<br />we could make it back to Him and our Heavenly Father. Something too I<br />was able to really learn was how we can be perfected through grace.<br />Sister Fromgren and I received a call from the elders in our area and<br />they got told by the Bishop of our ward that we would be speaking in<br />sacrament. Of course, I was very nervous to have to speak for 10<br />minutes in front of everyone. I was also bummed because I was close to<br />serving here in 7 months without being called to speak in sacrament<br />and I almost made it ;) I was grateful though for the opportunity and<br />as I reflected on the topic I should speak about, I realized how much<br />Jesus Christ has done for me throughout my mission. I decided to speak<br />about being perfected through grace and based my talk around the talk,<br />"The gift of grace" by President Uchtdorf. It went good and I felt<br />that I learned a lot more from being able to prepare the talk than<br />when I actually gave the talk. Overall, the work is really moving<br />forward. Both Joseph and Begonia came to church and the more that they<br />come, the more receptive they become to the messages that we share<br />with them. We are continually praying that they will receive the<br />answers to their prayers and questions and we have faith that the Lord<br />will provide. The rest of the week consisted of many meetings for<br />Sister Fromgren and I went to because starting in July, our mission<br />won't be having paper bound area books but we will start having online<br />(iPad) area books. There quite a few trainings on it so as a<br />leadership, we were given the trainings first and then this upcoming<br />week, we will be presenting that to the missionaries in our zone. I<br />love being able to help and keep busy though, as well as planning the<br />zone training that the zone leaders and Sister Fromgren and I are<br />putting together. It's a great learning experience and I'm excited to<br />continue to learn more. I love this work. Though the waves are course<br />and rocky at times, I've learned that the smoothest waves won't make a<br />skilled sailor so I know continuing with faith and diligence in this<br />work is the way to go. I hope all of you have a great week!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-83643912269815851222016-06-20T18:50:00.001-07:002016-06-20T18:50:19.415-07:00 No Habla Espanol <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What a funny and interesting week it has been! Some weeks here on our<br />missions are just filled with random adventures that we hope to never<br />forget. We were able to see many miracles as well. One of those<br />miracles has been teaching Begonia. We were able to actually teach her<br />this week and then the next day, we helped her with some English as<br />part of service. She is really good in speaking English but she wants<br />to improve even more. We had a pot luck dinner last weekend in which<br />both Begonia and a friend of hers was able to go. A lot of the Clapham<br />ward is from Brazil, Portugual, Ecuador, ect. so Begonia and her<br />friend seemed to really enjoy getting to talk to everyone around them<br />in Spanish and in English. All throughout this week, we have been very<br />blessed. A miracle we saw also was when we were banner contacting. We<br />set up the banner in Wimbledon in the storm threatening weather but<br />throughout the entire time we banner contacted, no rain came. Sister<br />Fromgren and I were holding the banner from blowing back and forth and<br />as we did so, Sister Fromgren, on the left side of the banner, got<br />talking to a lady with her child. They continued their conversation<br />next to the banner discussing the Gospel and as they were doing so, a<br />lady named Harriet approached me and asked us if we were the Mormons<br />like Donny Osmond. I smiled, explained who we were, and got talking to<br />her. At the end of our conversation, Harriet inquired about a Book of<br />Mormon and I gave her one. After she had left, I turned back to Sister<br />Fromgren who was getting done talking to the other lady and finishing<br />writing her number down. We looked at each other and knew that we were<br />in the midst of the season of miracles. Another miracle that we saw<br />was at the end of our accounting, our district leader turned to Preach<br />My Gospel and read from page 166 under the companion study activity<br />and read: "Identify all the former investigators (and he included<br />potentials as well) that you have and make plans to contact as many as<br />possible within the next 24 hours." Taking this challenge upon us but<br />seeing that we weren't home at the time with our area book, we started<br />looking through the phone with all the potentials there. Some names<br />were familiar, others were not. As we started from the top, we called<br />and some of them didn't answer. We continued with a determined faith<br />and called guys named Devon, Eddie, and Henry. All three of them<br />answered their phones, seeming very interested, and we were able to<br />set up return appointments with them this week. Not only did miracles<br />happen but many funny things did too. Some things that took place was<br />that Sister Fromgren and I were on the bus on the way to Nina's, a<br />member, for a dinner appointment. We got off one bus stop too early to<br />her home and suddenly found ourselves lost. Just as we started to<br />search for her house, heavy rain came down threatening to destroy my<br />IPad which had my map on it, and lightning like we had never seen came<br />down. I think I've come to discover my phobia for lightning storms<br />because I was praying so hard that lightning wouldn't hit me or my<br />companion. After several screams of terror as we saw a flash of blue<br />and a loud thunder that followed, we finally saw a familiar sight of<br />Nina's home and her standing outside waving her arms and beckoning us<br />in. Relieved, we were able to finally step indoors in the dry, warm<br />building. Another funny thing that happened to us was the day of<br />Begonia's sister, Celis's, baptism. The Spanish elders had been<br />teaching Celis for some time and we were then able to attend the<br />Spanish ward baptism and go with Begonia to see if we could answer any<br />of her questions as she saw her sister baptized. It was nice to know<br />that Sister Fromgren and I weren't the only ones who didn't know<br />Spanish because President Gubler and Sister Gubler were there as well<br />to show their support. Despite the whole baptism service being in<br />Spanish and the hymns as well, it was incredible to feel the same<br />spirit resonate throughout the room. I loved being able to pick up<br />different tiny words of Spanish throughout the service and was<br />grateful to have studied Spanish for two years in high school. After<br />the baptism, Sister Fromgren and I headed to the tube station. We were<br />heading back for lunch and as we got on the tube that would take us<br />back to our area where our flat was, the announcer came on, saying,<br />"Please switch to the other tube across the other side. This one will<br />not going this direction." Sister Fromgren and I might have been<br />listening to it but we were talking to each other and it didn't<br />register to us that we needed to get off. Just as the announcer<br />finished saying the last words, Sister Fromgren and I suddenly with a<br />look of shock realized what the announcement was saying. We lunged for<br />the door of the tube (underground train) but it was too late. A bit<br />worried, we looked around and realized we were the only ones in that<br />particular part of the tube. Look over to the next part of the tube,<br />we saw two people sitting looking at their phones. That was a relief<br />to know that we weren't the only ones on the tube. We looked both to<br />the right and to the left of us outside the window but all we could<br />see was darkness because we were passing through underground to who<br />knows where. Finally an announcer came on and announced that this tube<br />would be going back around to the station that we originally at.<br />Sister Fromgren and I sighed with relief as we saw light and saw the<br />opening to the station where people were standing at the platform<br />waiting to take the tube. We got off and got on the right tube and<br />arrived safely home. It's been a week filled with many things to learn<br />and to grown from and yet, also fun adventures as well. Something that<br />really stood out to me was to never let the little things in life pass<br />by. Always smile, laugh, and remember the times you have felt joy and<br />happiness and they are they things you will remember most. Sure, there<br />is opposition in the work, but that opposition makes me realize the<br />good things in life. I love you all, have a fantastic week!<br />Love,<br />Sister BurtisBabette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950306152550786058.post-10663070128116795612016-06-14T10:59:00.001-07:002016-06-14T11:09:32.740-07:00The Choice to be Happy and Successful<div>
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The weeks are passing but yet so much happens. I love missionary work for this reason and love to be able to reflect back on the experiences that my companion and I have had. Last Saturday rolled around and Sister Fromgren and I nervously anticipated the moves email to let us know If I or her would be moving. The email finally came and....I'm staying! Both Sister Fromgren and I were happy to be able to continue to serve with each other. We have grown to be such great friends and companions and it's like that for maybe most companionships after going through missionary work together. I'm happy to be able to continue to serve here in Clapham and with the ward. I know that the Lord has great plans for this area and I can't wait to witness the miracles that the Lord has in store for this mission. Last Monday, the Downend sisters, Sister Hamann and Sister Morales, came and stayed with us prior to the next day when we would be going to the Hyde Park Chapel to see Dallin H. Oaks. Sister Hamann was my second companion and continued to stay in Redruth (my first area) when I left and so it was fun to be updated on how everything was. The four of us sisters had a good time talking and catching up to see how everything was. The next morning, we woke up early, got ready, and took a bus to the Hyde Park Chapel. We were some of the first missionaries to get to the chapel so as we got seated, Sister Fromgren and I along with some of the missionaries we were with got to sit three rows from the front and felt very blessed to have been able to see Dallin H. Oaks closer. Prior to his meeting, there were missionaries from the London Mission there and it was a fun reunion to see all the missionaries from my MTC group. It had been about a year since I've seen them and it was fun to see the change that they have experienced and to see how they were doing. Being at the Hyde Park Chapel brought me back memories of last year when it was only day 2 of myself being in the mission field and I remember how daunting and scary it was to be around a group of missionaries that I didn't know. This time it was completely different. I saw many missionaries I had either served around with or had known over this past year and it was fun to see them again. As the meeting started, we not only got to hear from Dallin H. Oaks but also from his wife, Sister Oaks, our mission president and his wife: President and Sister Gubler, the London Mission president and his wife, and also President and Sister Keiron. The whole time, I felt the spirit strongly and many of my questions, on how I could be an even better missionary, were answered. A highlight too was when all the missionaries including me got to shake Dallin H. Oaks' hand, and also the hand of those that were with him. Some key things that he mentioned to us that stood out to me was: Opposition is necessary. It stretches us and helps us to grow. I loved when we were to think about David and Goliath. We were likened unto David and how we all have Goliaths of the world that we are fighting. Something too that was said was that this mission in which we serve may be difficult and discouraging at times when it seems like no one will talk to us and that our chances to baptize will be slim. Elder oaks proceeded to say that Baptism is the result of faith unto repentance. Teaching repentance is what we are asked to do and baptism will be a result of that. The Lord asks that we are His messengers and that we serve Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. Will we allow the agency and actions of others to rob us of our choice to believe, choice to be happy, and the choice to feel successful and of worth? The Lord will never ask us to do something we can't accomplish. If others reject, we must move forward as missionaries and continue to present this message to others so they can exercise their agency in choosing the Gospel. As we do this, we are fulfilling God's plan. :) After the meeting, Sister Fromgren and I traveled back to our area and taught recent converts and an investigator. The following day, Sister Fromgren and I traveled early in the morning with the Zone Leaders to Mission Leadership Conference (MLC). This time, we also had the district leaders there with us from each zone and we discussed how we could move the mission forward based upon what we learned from Dallin H. Oaks. We received some great revelation and as a council, came up with different ways on how to further the work along. That meeting actually ended up starting from 9am and ended at 7:30pm which normally doesn't happen. Usually it ends around 3-4pm but it was well worth it to sit in the council and to discuss the missionary work. We were able to come up with how we can implement the mission training plan and how we can accomplish goals that we have as a mission. The rest of the week, Sister Fromgren and I were blessed to be able to teach Joseph and some other new investigators this week. Begona, an investigator, who is from Peru is doing very well and loves coming out to church. She is working to strengthen her testimony about Joseph Smith and we know that the Lord will speak to her and give her that answer that she is looking for. Some miracles that we were able to see is: Mathew and Ruben. Mathew was a self-referral. He had walked into the Hyde Park Chapel and was curious to know how the 12 apostles in our church worked and how they were called. He referred himself and we went to go and reach out to him. His home was a bit farther away from where we lived but we tried several times to stop by and we had no luck. This past Sunday, we stopped by and his girlfriend answered the door. She explained to us that if we took a bus to the town, we could find him in his shop. Counting this to be a great miracle, we hopped on the bus and found the shop that Mathew worked in. We walked in and a guy, middle-aged, approached us. I'm sure he assumed that we were customers but then saw that we had Book of Mormons in our hands and smiled. We asked him if he was Mathew and he shook his head yes. As we got talking to him, we asked him if we could come back and teach him and his response surprised us. "How about in an hour's time, you can come back and share this message?" We said we could and then left to do some finding in that hour's time. We were blessed to be able to call a member to come with us for this teach and this member was able to go! All in all, we got to teach Mathew that very same day that we met him and it was a great lesson. He is very intellectual in the scriptures and asked some good questions and when we explained it to him, he shook his head in understanding and said, "that makes sense." His girlfriend, who is from Russia, had been listening to this message the entire time that we had been there and at the very end, she asked us, "Will we see our loved ones again?" Sister Fromgren and I were a bit surprised by the question because Mathew's girlfriend hadn't said so much during the time we were teaching. She continued to say how one of her siblings, at a younger age, had passed away, and that she wanted to find the answer because all the other churches didn't seem to help her with her question. Ruben, another investigator, who we just recently taught for the first time, was a miracle as well! We had received a text from a member of a different ward and letting us know that she had a friend who would be interested. We gave Ruben (the referral) a call and the very next day, we got to teach him! My heart is filled with gratitude for the opportunity I have to be able to teach these precious children of God. This Gospel is so simple, so great, and I treasure each moment that I have here on my mission. Though some days don't bring exactly what we were looking for, they are there to help us grow. I hope all of you have a great week. Find those who are ready to receive the gospel and share with them the sweet message of our Saviour and Redeemer. I know that this can bring much hope and light in their life.<br />
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Love,</div>
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Sister Burtis </div>
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Babette http://www.blogger.com/profile/01083851190838669570noreply@blogger.com0