Friday: Was just same old same old Pday.. haha nothing way exciting happened. I decided I was going to try to fast from rice.. (that literally lasted 2 days because I WAS STARVING) haha
Saturday: Sister Cortado, (one of our teachers) made us a deal that if everyone in our district memorized a scripture in Tagalog in 20 min then that Wednesday when we go proselyting she would get us McDonalds! I like McDonalds before the mission, but now it's like the biggest treat anyone can get you here haha! So of course our whole district learned a scripture & we met our goal! Saturday night was the night I started to feel pretty sick tho..
Sunday: Of course on Sunday it was the best day of the week. I love Sunday's here. It was crazy because all of the topics in devotionals and at church we talked about how important it is to listen and to be guided by the Holy Ghost. It is so important to be obedient and strive to be worthy to have the companionship of the Spirit. I've even noticed when me and Sister Holzworth teach, it goes so much better when we prepare and pray specifically to invite the spirit to be with us, we have so much more power when we teach and the spirit is just so strong. Another thing we talked a lot about was the love of Christ. We talked a lot about having charity and being humble in everything we do and say. We watched a devotional by Elder David Bednar and he talked about how the Savior's Ministry is always "one by one" -3 Nephi 11. The Lord always took the time to show the people one by one who he was and taught them one by one and let the people touch him one by one. As a missionary one of my goals is to love the people with a sincere heart, be Christlike towards everyone, and teach each individual one by one.
Monday: I was really sick on Monday. I kept going to see the nurse to get medicine or really just anything she had because I was in so much pain. My stomach felt like it was going to jump out of my body. I can't even express how awful I felt. Also with my stomach pain came homesickness. I don't like being sick, but it doesn't help being sick in the Philippines. All day I was just really struggling to be positive and I couldn't just lay in bed. haha It was terrible, because I have this amazing companion who is here to learn and to grow as a missionary. So I really realized I needed to just not think of myself and I needed to just suck it up and go to class. It was a good experience for me to just keep working hard and not let pain or sickness get in the way. I talked to our teacher Sister Cortado later that night and she really helped comfort me. It's amazing how wonderful and nice the people are here. They are super Christlike and I just love them.
Tuesday: I started feeling a little bit better luckily. My guro Sister Cortado also coached me a little bit and told me about how I can improve with the language. I sometimes feel really discouraged with the language. A lot of the people in my district are from Australia and have Australian accents so when they speak Tagalog the accent just kind of comes naturally for them. For me and the other American in my district it is not like that. We really struggle with the Filipino accent. So learning the language is extremely difficult. They have so many weird ways they pronounce words and man, let me just say.. IT IS HARD. but anyway it was nice to have Sister Cortado there because she shared with me the scripture Moses 6:31-32 and its pretty much talking about Enoch the Prophet and how he can't speak the language of the people, but it goes on saying that he had so much Faith that the Lord would help him and he ended up speaking so fluently and powerfully, "the rivers turned out of their courses". I don't know if that will happen to me that greatly, but I'm going to try to have as much faith as I can so I can learn this crazy Filipino language.
Wednesday: Wednesday was the best day on the mission so far. So much happened. We finally got to go out in the field and see what it is actually going to be like! We drove out to the Quezon City North mission to proselyte. On the drive there I had SO many emotions. There was so much poverty everywhere. Poverty like i've never seen. Poverty I could never imagine. It was so humbling to me to see such amazing happy people who live in such poor conditions. It is inspiring and heart-breaking. I don't even know how to express my feelings on what I saw and how I felt. We ended up driving to a chapel to meet our trainer for the day. Sister Holzworth and I were able to get our trainer and her name was Sister McCarthy. She has been out for 15 months and is from New Zealand. She was super nice and gave us some really good advice about the mission and language. We started off by riding a Jeepney to this super nice area (for the Philippines) and went to a new investigators home. She ended up not being there, so we couldn't teach her.. but luckily we had an appointment scheduled to just visit with a member down the street. We got to her house and holy it was so nice for a Filipino home. Sister McCarthy said it was the nicest home she has been to during her whole mission. It had tile floors, a couch, and even a table. We got in there and taught about faith and It was so cool to speak to her the little Tagalog I know and recite the memorize scripture I had learned. (Moroni 7:33) It is so odd communicating in a different language, but it is amazing that even tho you can't understand perfectly what the people are saying the spirit is still the same. Still that amazing, powerful, undeniable, peaceful feeling. The member, Sister Sabado was so sweet and bore her testimony to us at the end of the lesson as well. So powerful. Wow, I just don't think I will ever get over how amazing the people are here. After the lesson, Sister Sabado got up and went to the back where her kitchen was and was gone for like 10 min... I didn't know if we were supposed to leave or what was going on, but she came back with food. American food!! She brought out turkey hot dogs, ketchup, mustard, and this amazing juice. I felt so blessed and just amazed at how giving and selfless the people are here. She was a very sweet lady and I just am so blessed to have been called to serve here in the Philippines. After teaching Sister Sabado, our trainer gave me and Sister Holzworth contact cards to give out to random people. She said we would tract for a little bit and if no one answered we would just do street contacting. It was kinda hard, considering im not the most outgoing person... I think that'll slowly change out here tho. Getting out of my comfort zone and kinda forcing myself to talk to people is kind of one of the main things you do on a mission. Once I started to talk to people it was crazy. Everyone was so nice and so friendly and it helps a lot that I am American haha they really like American's here, especially if you are white. We talked to so many people and I realized how accepting these people were toward us and the gospel. We only went tracting for like an hour and we got two people's contact info. I don't know if that's normal other places, but I just felt like it was really good. They were so open to the gospel they wanted us to share our message right then and there. We obviously didn't have any time so we just set up appointments, but man it was awesome. I just can't get over how nice these people are living in such harsh conditions. It strengthens my testimony so much to see how the Lord has opened their hearts to hear our message and I know God loves each and everyone of us. I feel extremely honored to be here in the Philippines and to know the Lord trusts me this much to send me here to teach these beautiful people. I get to help bless the lives of his children. I know I still have so much more to learn, and it will these last two weeks in the MTC will hopefully get me a little bit more prepared, but I cannot wait to go out in the field and to start making a difference in the lives of these people. Man, these next 17 months are going to be crazy. IM SO EXCITED!!!! haha also we got mcdonalds after on Wednesday, so that was just a bonus.
I am so happy to be serving. It is hard not being able to really talk to any of you, but in 1 month we get to skype and I can't wait! Again, i'm sorry my emails are so long. If you don't read the whole thing I don't blame you haha, but just know i'm doing well and I love my mission, I love the people and I love being an instrument in the hands of God. I know this mission is going to be so hard and extremely hot. Wow, I can't even begin to explain how hot it is here. I have never felt anything like it. Youd think it would be better when it rains, but its not. It just gets more humid and awful ahha everyone has like little towels they carry around and just wipe their sweat on. It's disgusting, but its a way good idea. hahah I can't wait to see the adventure that lies ahead of me. I love you all and thank you so much for all the support and all the prayers.
Love,
Sister Barton
P.S. I forgot to tell you, we aren't aloud to send pictures home anymore... I don't know why so I'll just have to send them all to you when we get out of the MTC. We leave to go out in the field on December 2!
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