Learning the Lesson

Dear Family!!

Wow, can you believe in just 3 months (and a little bit) i'll see your beautiful faces in real life? What the heck that's the weirdest thing to imagine. I feel like my life back home was just a dream. Sorry if that sounds mean to say that I feel like my family wasn't real, but it's true. Until I actually see you in real life I think I will always believe you were just a dream hahaha

But this week has been a great week!! We were able to learn a lot through teaching, participating, and listening in 2 zone meetings. We were assigned to teach in the Makati East zone meeting. I'm not sure why because it is not our stewardship, but it was fine for us to teach. So we taught that one on Wednesday and then on Thursday we were able to have our zone meeting as the Makati zone and wow I really felt like it was so amazing. Elder Nolty is one of the zone leaders in our zone and holy is a very creative zone leader and tries little experiments on the zone each month. This month it is called reaching for gold to get the silver. By setting really high goals and trying to get 4 baptisms per week hopefully we can see more of the zone striving for that to get at least 1 baptism per week. He also shared about how it's all about our mindset. If we set our mind for baptism and to be positive and to always think "I can" then we will be able to do anything we set our mind to. I really enjoyed his lesson and I felt like that was something that honestly was kind of a spiritual impression that I really needed at this time. After he shared about being positive always and having a mindset of knowing we can do it, I really got me motivated and just spiritually lifted. 

That night (Thursday night) after zone meeting Sister Kumari and I went out to work. We ended up getting punted, but I was so optimistic and happy and motivated to just go go go. We just OYMed a bunch of people and shared little short doctrine messages about why the gospel would help bless their life. We got so many return appointments and many potential investigators, it was amazing. We also found a cute lady who had 4 older kids who still lived with her. So we were able to share with her and testify about how the gospel will bless her life and shared about temples and families. I just really feel like this week I have had a new perspective on everything and I just feel so happy.

It was funny because this morning I was kind of looking back on my mission and experiences and companions and things and I really felt so grateful for all the many things i've learned. I have learned so many thing that I never would have learned if I hadn't come on a mission. I really feel so grateful. I remember thinking back to different times during my mission and after almost every hard time i've had on my mission at some point I would talk to President Ostler and of course he knows everything that goes on. He always asks me, "because of .... *whatever experience, what did you learn?" I really love thinking about life more from that type of perspective. To know that everything that happens to us is just for us to have an experience and to learn. It really gives me comfort to know that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for each of us and gives us experiences to grow and to learn and to be better people.

 I'm grateful for all the things that I have learned on my mission. It's amazing to think that each area, each trial, each companion has been given to me so that I can learn and so that I can grow. I love to think about the different lessons I have learned because of my mission and because of the experiences and trials I have. I'm so grateful to be a missionary. To labor so hard everyday to feel the simple joy of seeing a new face come to church and accept the gospel. 

After so much labor, 3 of the most devoted beautiful people I have ever seen will be able to enter the waters of baptism on February 5th. I know that this day will be a glorious day for them and a day they will never forget. I'm grateful to be a missionary and to be here in the Philippines serving these wonderful people. I love working and laboring with all my heart so that people can recieve the blessing that I already have. It's amazing to be a missionary and to see the truth and love of God flood into these peoples hearts and change their lives. 

I am here to love, lift, encourage, inspire, and most of all to serve. As we all get down on our knees and serve our master Jesus Christ we will feel the spirit so much more in our lives and we will love more of the people in our lives. I love you all with my whole heart and I'm excited to give everything I have to the rest of the days in my mission.

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton 

ps. heres some cute pics hahaha 

15 Months

Family,

Oh my... time is going so freaking fast and I can't keep up with it. To think that in just a short 3 months I will be home. Back in America and i'm going to go insane. Ahhh it's going to be crazy, but anyway I'm so happy with what I have accomplished and have learned on my mission. I feel like I have grown so much and really have been taught a lot of valuable life lessons that I never would have been able to learn anywhere else, only on a mission here in the Philippines. I'm so grateful for all I get to do everyday. I'm grateful for the heartaches and the happiness and all the emotions I feel everyday that come along with missionary work.

This week has been especially good. Honestly one of my most favorite weeks on my mission. We were able to go to MLC on Tuesday and Sister Savea and Sister Holzworth were able to stay with us from Monday to Tuesday and that was awesome. I really love them both so much. On Tuesday at MLC I found out a lot of things that made me really happy. Let's just say we will be having so many changes in our mission and I AM SO EXCITED. I think the missionary work in the Philippines is just getting started and the changes that will be made to the mission will help boost the work so much. I really can't wait for it to be announced to the mission. :)

Also this week we had interviews. I got to Interview with President Ostler and we talked about a lot of things, but one of the things we really talked about was love. We talked about my mission and how honestly my mission has been really really hard (for me) and he told me that my mission isn't the mission that I probably necessarily wanted, but it is the mission that I needed. I'm so grateful for that. I'm grateful for a lot of the real life lessons i've learned on my mission. 

Like I said earlier we talked a lot about love. I think that one of the most important lessons I have learned on my mission is love. I have learned how to love people even in the most difficult circumstances. To just see them for who they really are and how Heavenly Father sees them. Heavenly Father loves each of us so much and I know that as we see people the way He sees them we will develop so much more love and charity in our attributes that we will be exceedingly different from the world because of the love we have. Sometimes loving people isn't easy. Sometimes it is actually really really hard, but I know that as we try our best to communicate with others and try to look for the positives in everyone we will be able to see what Heavenly Father sees in them and we will learn to love them. I really think the verses in Moroni Chapter 7 are so true. It's so important for us to develop Christ like love in order to be as he is.

I'm striving everyday to develop more and more love in my personality and to share love with everyone I meet so they can feel not only that I love them, but that Heavenly Father loves them as well, through me. I'm trying so hard to develop the attribute of charity. It's actually a really really hard attribute, but I think it's one of the greatest attributes anyone could every have. 

One thing that I have seen myself doing is looking for example of love in the New Testament. I have read the new testament many times within the time of my mission, but this time it is so different because I am really seeing how the life of Jesus Christ was literally all full of love. He had charity for ALL men. Not just the ones he like or the ones he thought were cool or good looking. He loved everyone. He truly loved them. There is nothing fake about the love of Jesus Christ. I know that as we all really try to develop the love of Jesus Christ we will see so much more miracles in our lives and we will see everyone and everything in a much more positive light. 

I really love love. The gift of charity that Heavenly Father can give to us as we strive to obtain it is magnificent. I'm grateful to be in the Philippines where so many of the people are humble and loving. It's easy to love people who love you, but the key is to love ALL people, no matter who they are you can love them. Anyway that was just a thought that I had a lot throughout this week. I invite you as well to try to magnify the love you carry with you. Love everyone as Jesus does. He is the perfect example. We can all look to him and try our best to become as he is with the help of our Father.

 One of my favorite chapters is Matthew chapter 5. When Jesus Christ teaches the Sermon on the Mount. In verse 44 he says, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

I truly love you all and I am excited to see what these last 3 months have instore for me. I'm excited to continue to love all the people I meet here in the Philippines. I really believe the gift of charity is the greatest gift on earth. Thank you for all you do for me and the love you show. I love you all and thank you with my whole heart.

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton

(Sorry i forgot my camera chord.. so i'll send pics next week...)

Optimism (no matter what)

Family,

Hello again Fam. This week has been good. I've learned lots of lessons and it's been awesome. I'm grateful for this upcoming week cuz we have so many events starting with MLC tomorrow. So i'm really excited for that! I'm doing great and I really love my mission. 

I have so much I want to write and tell you about, but the one thing I really want to talk to you about is about optimism. Which is funny because this week I was the exact opposite. I don't think I have had a week where I have been so pessimistic than I have this week. I don't know what happened, but seriously this week I got an all time low. I felt like everything and everyone hated me. My companion, my area, the people, the ward.. literally everything. As we worked everyday we got "punted" I don't know if they use that term in other missions, but in this mission it literally means that no one accepted you to teach them, all your appointments fell through, and really just nothing worked out. So we were getting so punted everyday as we worked this week. One thing about me being a missionary is I HATE GETTING PUNTED. I literally can't handle it. I get so fired up and just want to kill everyone (with the gospel of course) I really just don't like rejections. When people turn us away, say they aren't interested, or make fun of us, man it just really gets me sad. 

So one day this week I just couldn't handle it anymore. We had been walking all day in the heat of the sun and no one was home. Literally we went to like everyone we could think of walking probably like 10km this way and that way and finally we get to the last person we could think of going to.. and guess what. She wasn't home. So I bursted into tears and just cried on her doorstep. I really felt so sad. I felt no love and just like everything really sucked. Then I said a prayer. I really really simple prayer. I just asked for Heavenly Father to help me get through this day. And that was it. When I gathered myself together and stood up, I decided to smile. I decided to do what I needed to do and be a disciple of my Savior Jesus Christ. As we were walking back to the road, we decided to OYM a lady who was standing outside. Her name was Niang and she was amazing. She was a Catholic, but had a really good friend who was a Mormon and she was always interested in what Mormon's believed in. She let us teach her and we taught the Restoration powerfully. We then gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it for herself. A couple days later we came back and she had read the whole introduction and had started in the beginning part. 

As this small and simple miracle occurred and can't help but think how important it is for all of us to just keep trying and to keep going no matter how hard things get. This experience proved to me that Heavenly Father is mindful of each one of us and he really does want what is best for us. 

I have felt like many things have been a real struggle in this area and with some of our people, but this week I decided to end the week being as positive and as happy and bright as I could. People then could look at me and want what I had, but when your sad and grumpy it's hard for people to want what you have.. haha but as we ended the week and as I continued to make this my goal the more success we found. Not only with investigators, but with the Ward as well. We went from no one talking to our investigators and no one really caring about missionary work, to a ton of the members going up to our investigators and talking and fellow shipping them. As well as we coordination in a great meeting with all of the Auxiliary leaders about missionary work and wow, It was amazing. 

So I testify that being optimistic and staying positive at all times can really help. It has helped me so much on my mission and i'm grateful for the change of heart I had this week to change and be more happy and be more positive about everything. :)

Plus it's more fun to be happy anyway. The joy I feel as a missionary though is indescribale. As I describe the hardships and rough parts about missionary work, it doesn't mean that there aren't the same amount of joys and happiness. I am so happy and I feel so grateful to be a missionary. The joy that fills my heart when I see my investigators come to church, or a less active become reactivated and taking the sacrament again, or someone simply accepting a message and changing their lives step by step is literally indescribable joy. 

I'm grateful I get to feel this joy everyday. I love you all with my whole heart and I'm grateful for you. Thank you for being wonderful people and for staying positive and happy no matter what. 

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton 

Ps. Yes Mom, that is the dress you gave me for my bday. It looks better on her promise :)

The New Year of 2017

Family,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wow, I can't believe it is already 2017! That means... this is the year I will be coming home... isn't that crazy...? Wow. But sorry, this letter may be a little short cuz I'm running out of time... I love the New Year because it means we get to have a fresh start. We get to make resolutions and hope to have them be accomplished. Last year I made a couple resolutions and one of them was to do all of my personal progress. I know that sounds a little weird, but back in March I found out that Sister missionaries who haven't completed their personal progress can do it during their missions. So I decided to give it a try cuz I've always felt like a little bit of a failure not getting my medallion ever since I came on the mission... So guess who actually accomplished one of their long time 2016 resolutions??? MEEEE! I completed my personal progress :) So I thought that was kinda cool. I really enjoyed doing it and I learned a lot as well. So I would recommend doing it because I think it is a good way to learn the divinity and role of women.

As for this new year.. I'm so excited to think of what I can do this year to make it meaningful and things. I was reading earlier in the week in the Old Testament in Ecclesiastes. In chapter three verses one to eight it says, 'To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate, a time of war, and a time of peace."

I really like these specific verses because it just shows that Heavenly Father has a perfect time and season for everything that we do and everything that happens in our lives. The best part is we can control a lot of things that happen, but sometimes we just have to follow His plan for each one of us and exercise faith in Him and pray that it is the correct one.

I know that there is a time for everything we do in our lives and that Heavenly Fathers timing is the perfect timing. He let us come to earth at this specific time so that we could learn and develop our own personal skills to become the people he wants us to become. I'm grateful that I get to use His time right now by being on a mission and serving the Lord with all of my heart. As I keep thinking about what 2017 will hold for me, my mind keeps going back to timing. Everything is in His timing and we can chose if we want to use our time wisely and do our best to be the best we can be and make this year the best it can be, or we can chose to waste time and do pointless, useless activities that have no eternal value.

I want to do things with a purpose. That is why I am grateful to be on a mission because everything we do everyday has a purpose. I know it will be different when I come home, but I know that I will continue to give my time to the Lord and I invite you to as well. As you make all your funny resolutions like loosing weight, saving money, not using electronics, or watching tv as much, I just encourage you to maybe make a more spiritual resolution that will help build the Kingdom of God and that will help you become more spiritual intune. I'm grateful for all of you and I am grateful for this wonderful gospel. I hope all of you have the best 2017 ever!

Mahal ko kayo!

Sister Barton 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Family,

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It was so wonderful talking to you and seeing you. Sorry the connection kinda died, but it was great talking to you for as long as I could. That was my favorite Christmas present ever. 

This week is transfer week. We will find out what is happening tomorrow at District Meeting (a little different cuz in Palawan you find out on Monday, so patience...) I'm excited to see what will happen. Hopefully I won't transfer haha but ya just never know. 

Anyway it was wonderful to talk to you and to see your beautiful faces. Another Christmas on the mission and it was just as good as last year. This year was especially great because I got to do the thing that gives the most joy in the world... Give. I bought some simple inexpensive presents for the Mesa Family and on Christmas day (after talking to you) brought them to their house. They were so excited. Their face lit up and they were just so grateful. I really think my favorite thing in the whole world is giving people things. I just love it. I bought an individual gift for each of them and then a couple gifts for the whole family. I also brought a huge bag of some of the clothes I don't wear anymore and gave it to them. Wow their faces were priceless. I can't wait for one day when you get to meet them. I'll plan a time when we can all come to the Philippines and you can meet all my great people :)

Christmas night we also had the opportunity to go to our ward mission leaders house to eat dinner and that is where Sister Kumari also skyped. The food was great and she had a good time skyping as well, but my favorite part of the night was when we got to share a message of Christmas. We just followed the Spirit while sharing and we got on the topic of Joy and where our Joy comes from. We asked all of them where they get the most joy in their lives and the first thing they said was "family". 

We were on the subject of Jesus Christ, Joy, and Family for a while and the Father of our ward mission leader gave an amazing insight that I will never forget. He said something like this in Tagalog, "The greatest joy and happiness of Heavenly Father comes from families. Out of all his creations, worlds, skies, waters, creatures, all these things, his greatest creation is the creation of the family. So if his greatest joy comes from the family, of course our greatest joy comes from the family. As well as the whole purpose of our lives is to one day receive eternal life and become like our Heavenly Father. The only way we can do that is through the Atonement and through the family. The Atonement is for individuals, but it is for individuals in order for them to repent and become closer as a family. Stronger, closer, and obtain a greater relationship with their families. In order to enter the Celestial Kingdom we need to be in families."

As he was talking my whole heart was filled with joy and love. Knowing I had just talked to the people who bring the most joy to my life... my beautiful family. I am so grateful for you all. It's hard to be away from home during the Christmas season, but it is so worth it. I love being here in the Philippines and serving these great people. The meaning of JOY is who you need to put first in your lives. 

J- Jesus Christ

O- Others

Y- Yourself

I know that as we always serve the Lord, Jesus Christ, and others first, our own needs will be met. I'm so grateful for my fabulous family. I love you all with my whole heart. Thank you for being the best family in the world and for loving me even if i'm a bit different now. hahaha I think you are all wonderful and just think next time I see you it will be in the Salt Lake City airport in person :) haha what a crazy thought. I don't like it. So i'm gonna end it at that. I love you all. Keep being great examples and chose the right always. 

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton

Ps. Random facts for you. My ankles/feet are permanently dirty from being here. Literally I try to scrub them all the time, but there is just permanent dirt. I also have permanent bruises on my legs from falling up the stairs on my birthday and they have never gone away... hahahaha anyway that's just some random knowledge for you all. LOVE YOU

14 MONTHS

Heyyy Fam,

Guess what? I GET TO TALK TO YOU IN LESS THAN 1 WEEK AND IM SO EXCITED!!! I can't even handle how excited I am to talk to you. As well as can you believe I will be turning 14 months on my mission this week? 4 months left.. ahhhhhh where in the world is the time going? It's so funny having Christmas here again in the Philippines. Last year, it was awesome, but I didn't know half of the things that were going on cuz I was brand new and just kinda was in awe all the time at the difference of America and the Philippines, but now i'm practically ancient in the mission and I can't even remember what America is like.. hahah but I AM SO EXCITED for Christmas this year. It is going to be so great.

I remember thinking last year that Christmas was really going to be terrible because of all the changes, but I remember absolutely loving it. So I am really excited to be able to serve the one and only Christ on His beautiful day. It's such a blessing to be a missionary at this time of my life. I feel so grateful for all the challenges and hardships that bring the blessings and the joys of missionary work. 

It's so funny just reminiscing back on my first couple of transfers here in the mission. I was just so bata and I didn't know what I was doing. haha I cried everyday because of the language and I really just struggled so hard. Now, I get to just kind of enjoy missionary work. I literally just get to teach and testify about Jesus Christ and His beautiful gospel everyday and help others come unto Him and accept Him in their lives. What a beautiful work this is. 

This week we have had some ups and downs, but things are really starting to look up. We had our Ward Christmas party on Saturday that was suppossed to start at 6:00pm. I don't know if you have ever heard of this, but it is called Filipino time. Filipino time just kinda means everything will start later than they say cuz nothing will ever start on time. So we were thinking it would maybe start at 6:30 or 6:45pm, just planning for the worst... BUT GUESS WHAT. Literally 15 investigators came to the party at 6:15pm and literally we maybe had 5 members there... ahhhh it was so rough so we just talked to them and tried to make them feel comfortable for like an hour and a half and then finally the party started at 8:00pm. Soooo that was a rough one on me... I always thinking im gaining more patience here on the mission, but I WILL NEVER get used to filipino time.

The Ward made up for it the next day though. They brought 3 referrals to church and it was awesome. :) So honestly the missionary work here just keeps going up and it's really exciting to say the least!!

We also found the two cutest little girls to teach who are from a part member family and they are just eating up the lessons. One of the little girls literally asked if she could have a "Mormon Bible" hahahaha so that is the picture bellow.

As well as I got to go on exchanges with Sister Zarbock. She is from Draper Utah and went to Corner Canyon and said she totally knew Jess :) So that was really fun. I love being with Americans. There are only 3 of us in the whole mission... hahaha they came in July and when I found out I started screaming so that was really cool. I really enjoyed exchanges with her ahaha she's really awesome and we just got on great. 

Anyway my week was really good and honestly I just feel blessed to be a missionary. The closer I get to going home the more I find myself praying to Heavenly Father to make the days slower and longer. I can't help but feel weird when I think that in just a short 4 months I will be headed back to America.. But I don't have to think about that for 4 more months so that's the great part :) I'm excited to continue onward in the most amazing journey of my life. I really love being a missionary. 

I feel so blessed to be able to serve Christ during this CHRISTmas season. He is the reason why and I can't even express the love I have for Jesus Christ. He gave his life, his death, his resurrection, his everything so that we can be happy now, and forever. I'm grateful to be able to celebrate his birth this Christmas season without all the fancy presents and things, but just with love and through spreading the word of His beautiful gospel. I love all of you with my whole heart and I invite you to remember why we really celebrate Christmas.

Thank you for being such a great example to me and for always supporting me and being there for me. I love you all and I will see you in a short 6 days :))))

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton 

Power, Spirit, Revelation, Inspiration.. I got it all

Dear Family,

This week has been sooooo good! First of all we had this thing called a Mission Tour this week and we got to have Elder Allen D. Haynie come and speak to us. He is part of the area Presidency here in the Philippines. He is such a cool guy. He had the Spirit with him so strongly, but he also has the best sense of Humor. 

Being a leader in the Mission I was able to attend MLC and he taught almost the whole thing. He talked about the way we can really change our mission to be "that" missionary who has "those" experiences that everyone talks about after their missions. He really got me so pumped up to just work and work and work until I die... (dying means go home pala) I literally was just so ready to get out and work and kill it. Then on Thursday we had our actual Mission Tour which involved all the Manila Mission Missionaries (besides Palawan) and we received even more inspiration for our areas and how to be the best missionaries and "Find Scattered Israel" It was just a really great conference and a really great week. 

One thing that I love that Elder Haynie does every time he speaks to people is when he shakes our hands he tries to personally get to know each one of us for a min or two. So on Thursday I was kinda sick, so I literally didn't have a voice.. I sounded like a man. So he's like talking to me and I tried to talk back, but man it was a struggle. Turns out he actually went to Bountiful High School... he's a little older than Dad, but maybe they know each other or something. idk, but he's cool. It was a really awesome conference. 

We also had a Sister named Anny stay with us from Palawan. She is an amazing person. Background on Anny. She is from Brookspoint Palawan which is like the bottom part (Narra Zone, only Elders serve there). She is a school teacher and she is so cool. She has always wanted to go on a mission and she just recently decided to submit her papers, but she needed to get all the check ups and medical things first. So she stayed with us and we took her to the hospital. She has an enlarged heart so they were thinking she could maybe just get on some medicine to control it and then she could go. As we went with her to the hospital on Friday we found out that she is going to have to have a lot more done to her than what was expected... 

She will come back in two weeks to get more tests and have more things done to her, but wow it was awesome to just have her stay with us for a couple of days. I really felt how much faith she had. She wants to serve so badly, yet her circumstances may not let her. The desire she has to serve the Lord is incredible. I feel so blessed I was able to meet and get to know her. 

I felt a little bad because on Saturday I couldn't even talk and my whole body hurt so I stayed inside to rest and drink water and take like 8 medication pills.. so that was a little rough, but i'm okay now. Sister Turner (the medical nurse) thinks that because I had Dengue every little sickness I get turns really big and kinda messes up my whole system. So i'm gonna have to be kinda careful. I'm doing great right now though!

I'm so excited to skype you on Christmas! 2 WEEKS AND I GET TO SEE YOU! I feel like it's been sooooo long! So i'm super excited. I'll think of some cool things to tell you, but maybe if you have any questions about anything write them down over these next two weeks and i'll answer them when we skype. :) 

This week was awesome though, throw out the sickness and boom this week was a perfect week. And to top it off we had fast and testimony sunday yesterday because we had stake conference the week before. Wow how powerful the testimonies were yesterday. I swear this whole week has just been a week of power and revelation and inspiration and greatness. 

I love you all and i'm grateful for all you do. Thank you for the package and thank you for you love. I am grateful I get to serve and I get to witness big, small, amazing, great, gentle, powerful miracles everyday here in the Philippines. I feel the Spirit everyday so strongly and I am just really grateful for these last couple of months I have to really give it my all. Keep being an example to everyone and share the light of Christ. 

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Barton 

Pictures... Sister Anny and I, Sister Anau sliced a lizard in half because it was all over the place in our room and I couldn't handle it (she was sweat'n so hard but she over powered the lizard), and my beautiful Christmas tree.