Tuesday, June 21, 2016

8 MONTHS

WOW I've made it! 8 months!! :) Can you believe it? FINALLY! Ahhh this week has been something else. It's so funny cuz in Coron no one ever fed us cuz they didn't have any food to give us, but here we eat at someones house everyday... SO HERE WE GO.. im gonna get fat again. hahah we had 2 dinners yesterday. AHHH I love it. It's so funny to try to stuff your face with food cuz it's rude if you don't eat everything on your plate and get more. haha 

But really this week has been a lot better than the previous weeks. We are finally finding people in our area and where are area is and all of that great stuff. Minus getting lost for a couple hours this week things are looking good. We were able to have a one day mission on Saturday. Not a lot of women showed up to be a part of if, but we were able to work with the Branch President, President Somara and his Daughter Joann. It was really good because we were able to visit some less actives and I think that they feel a lot more valued when the President himself came to visit them. We were able to share John 6 with them and Jesus asks a really good question to his apostles. Many of the people took what Jesus said about partaking of His body and blood literally and it offended them so they left Jesus and departed. After this happened Jesus turned to the twelve and says, "Will ye also go away?" The twelve reply and say, "We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." I love this. If we have a firm testimony of Jesus Christ we will never leave Him. We will never go astray or fall away, but we will be faithful to Him forever. 

 I really love focusing on the Less Actives because I honestly think the core is bringing back the ones who are already members and who already have or had a testimony. I just want to show them how much I love them and how much our Heavenly Father loves them. It's so hard to want something so badly, but know they have their agency to chose. I can't imagine how it would be to be Heavenly Father and just watch your children make choices. Even for myself.. I've probably frustrated Heavenly Father too many times to count. haha 

We are also trying to find new investigators. We try our best to OYM as many people as we can everyday, but it's a little rough considering we got lots of buisnesses in our area... This week I wanted to try something new so we actually went tracting. It was really a cool experience. We got punted all day so instead of just walking around hoping someone would be interested as we talked to them on the street, we went on this one street and literally went door to door knocking and asking them if they were interested in a message that could change their lives. It was really cool because not only did it take great courage, but also great faith. I've never actually tried going from door to door knocking, but it was neat to see the Lord working through us. We actually were able to find people who were interested. It just shows that if you really want to work and find those people who are waiting for the gospel, you just go out and find them. Knock and try your best. Of course there was many rejections, but the ones who didn't reject and who were open to the message, they were the ones when I knew this is what missionary work is. 

I absolutely love being a missionary. I feel grateful to be here. It is hard, but it is worth it. I can do it with the Lord I can do anything. It is cool to see how much I have grown in these last 8 months on MY mission. That's what I have realized, also from the great advice of Jens. But that this is my Mission and I can have it be anyway I want it. It's all about my attitude. I just need to have a positive attitude and a heart full of gratitude everyday. I am really starting to love it here. And I feel like Heavenly Father put me here for a reason. Things are looking up and time is flying. 8 months down.. and in 10 i'll be right back in good old Utah doing whatever you guys do over there. Haha

I love you all so much and I'm so happy that I have a wonderful family and amazing friends to help support me in this crazy amazing adventure of mine. Remember to be happy and to chose the right everyday. It's all about the simple choices and the simple things. 

Mahal ko kayo,
Sister Barton 

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