Friday: WE GOT TO SEE THE APOSTLE ELDER RENLUND SPEAK!! He did an amazing job. He spoke about 3 main things. First off, he just started out by saying how much the Lord, prophet, and Quorum of the 12 thanks each and every one of us for coming on missions. He said he thanks us for accepting our calls and we will be blessed in so many ways for serving our master. Secondly, he talked about how we have the right and obligation to know our mission we have been assigned to was for us specifically and came through revelation. It's crazy to think Manila needs me. I am needed the most in the world in the one place where I am, in the Manila Philippines. It's such an amazing blessing to feel like I am a missionary who could touch even just one person's life so much that the Lord would send me here to do his work. Lastly, he talked about was to always yield your will to the will of Heavenly Father. He did such a good job and it was so good to see have an Apostle of the Lord talk to us all the way here in the Philippines.
Saturday: WAS MY MONTH MARK!!!!! I've been gone for a month & I still have 17 more to go... haha no but really I'm so happy to be here and to be doing the Lords work. There is nothing more i'd rather be doing than to be here and sharing this amazing gospel with the beautiful people of the Philippines.
Sunday: Soooo on sunday.. for sacrament on sundays they have 4 random talks and right before they start sacrament meeting they assign the four talks to random people to talk on that particular topic, and guess who got assigned to speak... me. I was asked to speak on the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith. Before my mission I knew the things and basic stuff about the Restoration of the Gospel, but now that i'm a missionary I feel like a whole new set of eyes and mind are on me. I've come to truly know the prophet Joseph Smith for myself. I've come to know that he was called to be a prophet of God. Through his confusion about the gospel and his pure heart and sincere faith, he had one question, gave one prayer, and changed the world. Through one single prayer, Joseph Smith restored the original gospel of Jesus Christ here on Earth. He had so many opportunities to reject or pretend like nothing happened, but no, he sacrificed his whole life for this gospel and this church. He is one of the most faithful people i've ever known of. Without Joseph Smith I wouldn't be a missionary. Without Joseph Smith I wouldn't have the true gospel of Jesus Christ in my life that bring me so much happiness. Without Joseph Smith and I wouldn't be the person i am today, and I wouldn't be here. So I thank God, for restoring this great gospel through the amazing prophet Joseph Smith. I truly admire him.
Monday: We pretty much studied all day like we usually do. Sister Holzworth's mom sent me some pictures and chocolate in a card and it was really nice haha I love Sister Holzworth, honestly I don't think I could've had a better first companion. I will be so lucky if I get anyone half as good as her in the field. Since she is going to Manila as well hopefully we can talk the mission president into letting us be companions at the end of our mission! haha I also found out, I'm the only American sister in the Manila Mission.. the only other one is a girl who is leaving in December I think... haha soooo Yay for America.. hahah
Tuesday: We had Elder Allen D. Haynie came and talked to us. He honestly was the best speaker i've ever listened to. He talked all about Obedience and the importance of being obedient and honestly he nailed it. I can't express how I have realized the importance of being obedient on this mission. I'm lucky because i'm kind of a natural obedient person, but I've notice it really is a struggle to be obedient. There are just so many rules you have to follow, but I know the Lord will bless you SO MUCH if we are obedient in everything we do. So I will keep striving to be as obedient as I can.
Wednesday: Maligayang Pasko! (Merry Christmas one month early) LOL we celebrated christmas with our batch. Everyone in our batch drew names last week to do secret santa and we all had to buy a gift for 200 peso's aka like $4. Anyway, It was super fun! I made a video so i'll have to send it to you once I get out of the MTC. I got lucky because I drew Elder Zesiger, the one from Centerville who flew here with me! We have become super good friends here at the MTC and it was just fun to buy a present for someone! Sister Critchton had me! haha she is Samoan and she is just the cutest. She just gave me the money and wrote me the nicest card. Anyway that was a good, cute, little early christmas. But the main part of today, was we got to go proselyting in Manila! One of our goals as a district was to OYM and give away 2 restoration pamphlets and place one Book of Mormon. (Which is super hard considering we don't know the language real well, but it was good) Anyway, we met with the training companions we were going to go out with and I went with Sister Terabwena. She has been on her mission for about 9 months and is super good with the language. So i went with her and sister cortado, our teacher, wanted to join us. SO she was just with us the whole time being a member, which was good. She helped out a lot. We first started around 1:30 pm and our first appointment was at 2 pm. Since we still had 30 min I decided to start doing my goals. So on our way to the appointment i just decided i would smile and say hello to everyone and if it felt right i would go over and talk to them. So that is what i did. We saw the poorest, cutest old man sitting on a bucket. So we decided to say hello and introduce ourselves. He said he was catholic, loved God, and was very blessed. He told us a story about how he got in an accident and half of his body was paralized. He was still so happy. He had no teeth and could hardly talk, but it was amazing because even tho this guy was really old and speaking really fast and softy, I could still understand most of the Tagalog he was speaking. It was amazing. So we shared with him a little bit about the restoration and gave him a restoration pamphlet. He just took it and smiled. Haha with his no teeth! He was such a cute guy tho. Then we just kept walking down this poor as can be street. Honestly, google poor areas in Manila and that is exactly what it was like. It is so crazy! We are so blessed to live where we live. These people have life so rough, but are as happy as can be. But we got to this little, i don't even know what to call it. I guess you could say apartment, but it was more like little rooms stacked on top of eachother made out of left over garbage, with no windows or doors. There was a sheet hanging to see if anyone was home. We knocked (as best as we could) and yelled Tao Po and no one was inside. Apparently a lot of people aren't there when you are supposed to teach them... So we just left and went to do OYM some more. We saw this lady, probably about 35 years old, working at a little food stand right outside the apartments. She was just sitting in a chair to the side of the stand reading and Sister Cortado had a prompting that we should go talk to her. We introduced ourselves and asked her a little bit about herself, just trying to get to know her. She was catholic, had a 16 year old girl, her and her husband both worked two jobs, and she had a love for God that was remarkable. Her name was Sister Elania and we asked her if we could share a message with her about God and his son Jesus Christ. She was very interested and said yes! So right then and there we sat down by this cute lady and sang "I am a child of God" in Tagalog and I opened the lesson with an opening prayer. My companion then started teaching her about the Gospel and how it blesses families. We askedd her how the Lord blesses her in her life and she began to tell us how she knows God answers prayers and we have challenges and trials to make us stronger. You could tell she could feel the spirit really strong and she just started crying. After, I asked her if I could share a story about a boy who had his prayer answered by God. I then taught her about Joseph Smith, the first vision, and the Book of Mormon all in Tagalog. It was amazing, but definetly the hardest thing i've ever done.. I asked her if she would pray to know the truthfullness of the story about the prophet Joseph Smith and if she would read the Book of Mormon. She said yes and said she would aslo come to church on sunday. Man, I was so excited. I never would have thought that in just 5 short weeks I could teach these amazing people. I just wish I was in this zone and could come back to teach Sister Elania, so fingers crossed. You can just tell her heart is open to the gospel and she is ready and well prepared. Her testimony in God and Jesus Christ was amazing. She was amazing. We then ended with a prayer and headed back to the meeting spot for all the missionaries. As we were walking back everyone kept saying hello to us and would shake our hands, but the cutest little girl came up to me, hugged me, pointed and started yelling BARBIE!! haha It was so cute! I wish you guys were here to experience what I am experiencing. A mission is hard, but so rewarding. Im so blessed to be a missionary here in the philippines and in a week, I get to change lives everyday with this amazing gospel.
Thursday: it was Thanksgiving, So HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Hahaha we had burgers and fries for dinner so I guess that just shows how great my thanksgiving was. Jk it really was way good cuz no rice! haha
This week was a really good week. Starting in the field my Pday's are on Monday. So I won't be able to talk to you for like a week and a half, but it's probably for the best because I feel like I might complain a whole lot the first week in the field. It is going to be so hard. I know that the Lord will help me and bless me for my work. I love you all so much and think about you guys everyday. Thanks for everything. And Mom Happy Birthday tomorrow! I hope you got or get my letter soon! I hope it's a wonderful day for you! I love you so much & I thank God everyday for giving me such a Christlike mother. Thank you for everything! I'll talk to you guys soon. Remember to stay happy :)
Love,
Sister Barton
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