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