Back to Manila

Family!!

This week was great! I had the  opportunity to go back to Manila for Zone Conference and it was amazing. We also got to go to the temple on Thursday which was double amazing, and to top it all off, I received many beautiful letters and packages from the dearest people. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

So we were able to go to Manila on Monday and guess who is the new nurse for the Manila Mission for a short time? Sister Taylor. So I met her on Monday because I had a doctors appointment. She looked so familiar and I didn't know why, but we started talking and she said she had 11 kids and was from Kaysville. So then I started putting peices together and turns out she is John Taylor and like Sarah Taylor's Mom! Small world right? She is taking over the mission nurse for just a little time right now until June so I thought that was super cool cuz I got to talk to her for a while and I just really like talking to people who are from where I'm from. It's awesome. 

Anyway, then on Wednesday we had Zone Conference. We were so so so lucky cuz guess who (on sunday) was asked to teach a portion of Zone Conference... Me and Sister Fermin. Hahaha when we got asked I was like yeah whatever cuz i was focusing on talking at church that sunday, but then wednesday came around and I was like Oh my gosh we have to teach in zone conference. Hahaha not to mention I am like what 5 months into my mission and I'm suppossed to teach these experienced missionaries on how to be better at planning and stuff.. Ahhhh I was freaking out. It was a good experience tho, but I hope it never happens again. Plus it was in English so that was cool :) (My tagalog is getting better, but slowly. Slowly is the key word in there)

Also I'm just going to take a second and express on how much I LOVE my mission President. President Ostler is the neatest man. Oh my goodness, I feel so blessed that he is my Mission President. We were able to have interviews with him and he just is so inspired and really is a man of God. He helps love and lift me. He is so amazing, i really can't express how grateful I am to have come to the Manila Philippines mission just because I get him as my Mission President. He is absolutely amazing. 

We were also very fortunate to attend the Manila Temple on Thursday and wow was I so thankful. I have been struggling a little bit to just keep on enduring. Honestly, I cannot express how hard a mission is. I feel physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exahusted all the time. It's exahusting haha but really a mission is so worth it, but It is very very difficult. So I felt very blessed to be able to enter the temple and just feel of the peace and calmness there. It really is the closest place to heaven. I challenge every single one of you to always be worthy to have a temple recommend and then USE IT! Living in Utah we are so so so so blessed to be able to have so many temples. Take advantage of them.

Lastly, Happy Easter everyone. Mom thank you for the package, it made my whole life. Especially the Cadburry eggs :) and Ang Plano ng Kaligtasan wood thing. That'll be really helpful in Lessons so thank you. Also thanks Alli for the cute Valentines Package and the many letters I received from many of you. I love love love letters so I feel very blessed to have received so many! :) THANK YOU!

I want to just express really quickly how grateful I am for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Wow. The Atonement is so deep and can help anyone. As it being Easter and us reflecting on his Resurrection, it just makes me ponder about how lucky we are that Jesus Christ, our Savior overcame death for each and everyone of us so that we could return back to our Loving Heavenly Father. How grateful I am for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As well as he overcame Sin for us. All we need to do in return is have Faith in Him and repent. I loved this quote I read in a book the other day, It says, "The offer is always there; the way is always open. We can always, even in our darkest hour and most disastrous errors, look to the Son of God and live." Wow. What a powerful statement. May we all use the Atonement in our lives daily to become perfected through our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Mahal Ko Kayo,

Sister Barton

Procrastination at it's Finest

Family!

Ohhhhh what a week it has been here in the mission. It has been a long, tiring week, but a good one. I am learning so much about the gospel everyday it is insane. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the doctrines. Everything is so simple,  but so deep and it's amazing. I love love love love it. Anyway this week has three main parts to it. First, Brother Nathan (who is the coolest man i have ever met) second, procrastination as a college students helped me out tons this week, and lastly, what I realized about our Savior Jesus Christ. So here we go.. sorry if this is long, but I also sent pics so bonus cuz im in manila for the week for zone conference so I CAN SEND PICTURES!!

So first off, brother Nathan. Now Brother Nathan is a stud. He is so brilliant. Okay so he is probably in his mid 50's okay and he is a pastor (so he knows tons and tons about the bible) So we have been teaching him for the past 4 weeks and he was taught before with the Elders as well. So we were teaching him on Thursday about the Restoration again just because he was kind of confused about the doctrine. After we taught him he was like so pumped for his Baptism (on the 26th) and he was ready to go. Then we go back to teach him the next day and he has a billion of questions about baptism. So he asks why we baptize with the words we do when we are suppossed to be baptized in Jesus's Christs name. Why would we just say the Son? So I show him 3 Nephi 11 where Jesus specifically says the words we should use when we baptize. Then he understands and then starts asking questions about the God Head. He asked, why does it say the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, wouldn't that mean they are one? Why does it say in? So of course we were like no they aren't one, they are one in purpose, but not one being. It was kind of an interesting question if you dwell on it tho. So later that night we went home and told the sisters in our kabahay about it. Sister Vaka is so into doctrine she loves deep doctrine so when we said it, we all got out our scriptures and started studying the God head for the rest of the night. The thing is tho we have a 10:30pm curfew where are lights have to be out. So what we did is turned of the lights at 10:30 and just continued to study. Hahaha It was awesome. Just using flashlights and studying about the God Head. The unfortunate part was we didn't realize we stayed up studying until 3:00am... so that was a bummer considering we had to be up at 6:30amthe next morning. But anyway it's fine. We came up with a conclusion of why it says in tho, but you guys can ponder that question and come up with an answer of your own:) But anyway Nathan is great and he is getting baptized this coming Saturday so HOLLA!!

Next, Soooooo you know how i was a really big procrastinator all throughout my life and really really bad in college? Yeah, well it all payed off on Saturday night. So Friday nightwe were studying the doctrine so we didn't sleep. Then Saturday morning we get a call from the branch president telling us that we are going to be Speaking on sunday for 10-15 mins on a topic of our choice. So of course I start freaking out cuz i'm still not good at tagalog in speaking and in writing I am absolutely horrible cuz i don't know the grammar. soooo i'm freaking out. So all throughout the day im pondering on what I think the branch needs and trying to write this talk in english first so I can translate it later in tagalog and ahhhh man, lets just say I was stressing. Anyway, so I wrote my whole talk in English throughout the day. The topic I chose was on the attributes of Christ and how we can more fully develop them in ourselves. I decided to focus mainly on humility. Great topic, great talk, horrible word choice when it came to tagalog. So in tagalog Humility or humble is Magpapakumbaba. Yeah freaking longest word ever.. hahah so that was awesome. So that night I had my companion read it and translate each sentence while I video'd it. Then I listened to the video over and over again and wrote it down in Tagalog/ Translated it. Okay so It took my 4 hours to translate a 15 min talk in Tagalog. I didn't go to sleep until 4:00am. That is where my procrastination and my ability to work at night really cam in handy So I feel so so so thankful for that. Anyway afterwards It made me really ponder about Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon. I know with my whole heart and soul that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. No man could ever translate a whole scriptorial book without the power of God in what like 40 days? Wow. I know that Joseph Smith had the power and authority from God to translate the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so so so great. It is literally evidence that everything we believe in is true. It is evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, that Jesus Christ is the Living Son of God, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true restored church on the face of the Earth today. I feel so blessed to be apart of this great work. Everyone read the Book of Mormon everyday and I promise you, The Lord promises you that you will be able to overcome anything. Ahhhh it is so so so great.

The last and one of the greatest things I learned this week is how blessed we are to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So In Coron it is just a branch. So very very few people. Most of them are recent converts of 3 years or less. I feel blessed to be apart of this work in helping them strengthen their faith. It is amazing to see how much love they have for the gospel and how devoted they are. Easter is on Sunday and we had a challenge from our mission president to read the accounts of the Savior in the New Testament. It was amazing to feel the power behind the apostles words of the Savior and to really understand what Easter Is all about. Easter is the time when Jesus Christ was resurrected. He overcame Physical Death for all of us. We owe Him everything. Let us serve him everyday. I heard this quote this week and I can't remember it fully, but in summary it is like, "You are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you know the fullness of this gospel, you do not have the right to do anything stupid or make wrong choices." This just made me think, yeah, why do we make wrong choices? We know the truth, we know how we can return to Heavenly Father, Why do we make wrong decisions that ruin our lives and others? I'm not quite sure, but I know that as we strive to live this gospel with all of our hearts, the Lord will bless us. We will be able to endure to the end. I love you all so much. I thank you for the support and the prayers. Serve the Lord everyday, for that is the only way the Kingdom of God here on earth will grow. 

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton 

First Sister Zone Leader

Family! 

First of all I just wanted to say I LOVE CORON!! I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT. It is freaking way hard, but I love it with my whole heart. I can't express how much I love it here. This place is the best. I have freaking crazy experiences everyday and it is so cool. This week we were able to have Zone Conference, do service projects, & go to the beach! I had the best week. I still struggle with the whole language thing, but i've learned to just accept it and try my best even tho everyone laughs at me.. ahaha you really learn Humility being a language training missionary. It's fine cuz I like laughing so people laugh at me, I laugh at myself, and then we all laugh together and it's great :)

Anyway, let me just introduce my new title... hello i'm Sister Barton and I was the first zone leader here in Coron. hahahahaha literally since we have no Elders on the Island we take turns being district and zone leader and It was my turn and it just so happened to be zone meeting so I taught a lesson about Humility and it was great. I'm a great zone leader hahahah just kidding, but really I learned so much having to teach about Humility. Jesus Christ was literally the most perfect example of humility. He literally descended below all things and came to this Earth to die for you and for me. Ahhhh we have a challenge for these next two weeks to learn more about Jesus Christ (considering it's easter soon) So I'm reading the New Testament and Wow. I love reading about Jesus Christ and his life. I can't believe I, like ME, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and I get to wear his name on my heart everyday. wow. I love love love being a missionary. It's harder than I could have ever imagined, and sometimes I feel so discouraged and just want to give up and go home, I have never felt so weak, but so strong in my entire life. I love my mission. 

Secondly, On Saturday we got to do a service project way back in the mountain of coron and it was so fun! We decorated for a birthday party and we made balloons and stuff and it's funny cuz I still can't communicate way well with everyone, but the kids and I have so much fun. We just were playing pass with the balloons and playing baseball with them and man I love kids. They literally make my whole mission. I have so many cool pictures, but this computer is really not wanting me to send pictures... so I don't really know what to do.. haha it's terrible.. Hopefully I will be able to send them next week because we fly back to Manila for Zone Conference (I won't be the zone leader there) hahaha but really the service project was so fun. It's so cool to be here because we have so many service projects we get to do. Like in a week or two one of mine and Sister Fermin's investigators wants us to help her build her house so we are going to get the whole branch together and build a house so YAY!! I'm so pumped. We also ate rice on the floor. haha I love the culture here. I'm gonna be so weird when I get home just because I think I embrace the culture a little too much. I am starting to do everything like a Filipino :)

Today, WE WENT TO THE BEACH!! I have way sick pictures of us at the beach, but for some reason it's not working... ahhhhh so frusturating but whatever. I don't think you guys even know how funny it is to live here. There is like nothing, but It's awesome. haha when we went to the beach we just sat there in the sand and got to stand there looking at the ocean and just breathe in the fresh smells. Wow I feel so so so blessed to be here I can't even begin to tell you. I love it here. There are definitely a lot of trials still. We actually showered this week at our neighbors house because we had no water... so we still are struggling when it comes to water and food. haha and money.. the Elders didn't leave any money for the bills so I had to pay 4000 pesos for the electric bill for the last two months (don't worry i'll get reimbursed, but for now.. walang pera). Wow. I love Elders hahaha life is definitely more fun in the Philippines. That's really all I can say.

Anyway fam that's all I can really report for this week. I love you all and I hope you are doing good. So many spiritual experiences happen everyday and I feel blessed to be serving these beautiful people and sharing the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ with them. All I can say Is I love being a missionary. I love my mission. I love my people. "Trust in the Lord, and do good;" Psalms 37:3

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton 

Coron

WOW this week has been sooooo good. Haha you guys would die if you saw me do the things I do everyday. All I can say is it is awesome being a missionary! So just a couple things that I did this week (then i'll get into the really awesome stories)...

1. I ate Dinuguan. Yeah I know you don't know what that is so I'll explain haha Dinuguan is Pigs blood. Disgusting right?! Nope. It is so so so so good. I literally could eat it everyday. We went to a members house to eat and they told me what it was and I tried it, ate it, and it was amazing. So yeah thats cool.

2. For Service this week we washed beer bottles for an old lady to sell back to the companies and HUGE spiders would crawl out of the bottles and up my arm and on my head and ahhhh I was screaming. It was hilarious and everyone was laughing. The same thing kept happening to me and Sister Vaka soooo the two foreigners freaking out... haha way to represent.

3. We went to Digiboy. Digiboy is a place in our area where there is literally just mountains of garbage are pilled up and people just burn it all. It's so cool, but it smells so disgusting haha it's sick (literally). 

4. We shower with a hose outside because our water thing broke.. I have a picture, but pictures won't send this week so you'll just have to wait hahaha but life is hilarious. (be grateful for your showers)

5. I was talking to these two little kids this week and I was asking them their names and one looked like a girl and the other looked like a boy so im just talking to them and the one who looks like a girl says their name is Benny so I was like what... and asked if he was a boy. He says yeah and then I said talaga? and he just pulls down his pants... and thats when i realized he really was a boy... HAHAHA so ya funny story...

6. I had my first baptism this week!! Sister Michelle was baptized and wow she is just the cutest. She is so prepared. After her baptism she actually wanted to work with the missionaries and be a member present so we got to work with her! It was awesome! :)

Anyway I had the most spiritual experience this week. Honestly the people here in Coron are some of the most amazing humble people I've ever met. We went to The Pagayunan family around 7pm so it was already pretty dark. They live in Bacquan baba which is where you have to walk on the wooden things to get to their house okay, so anyway we get to their house and they had a brown out. (it's like a black out, but they call it a brown out idk why) Anyway so there is absolutely no light in their little house. So we just ask if we can reschedule and come back another time, but they were eating so they told us to come in and eat with them (this happens a lot, Philipinos are very hospitable) Anyway so we go in their house and they give us literally the food they are eating.. just like extra crackers and juice. I tried to say no, but they insisted and they are so poor it was just hear breaking. So we are sitting there eating their food and then their extended family members come into their house. They had like candles and stuff so that was good. So i'm sitting there seeing like 20 people in this little house with candle light and flash lights going around. And honestly the family was just loving eachother and laughing and they were just so happy. It really just proves money is not happiness. Not even kind of. This family has like close to nothing and I don't think i've ever seen a happier family than that night when I was sitting in their home watching them. They are the best. I cannot wait for them to get even more happy by accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I literally cannot express my love for the people here in Coron. I love this place with all my heart. I can just feel that this is the place where I should be. I can hardly stand how much I love it here. Yeah there are definitely difficulties, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. Ahhh I love Coron, I love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I love you all. Remember stay happy and be humble. 

Mahal Ko Kayo,

Sister Barton