One Year of Service

I am actually really content and have been able to feel the prayers that you are all sending me. I am so grateful to know that we have a merciful Heavenly Father and a loving Savior that are willing to help us. Like Paul, I glory in my weaknesses because through them I can see the power of Christ! 

I cannot believe that I will completing a year in the service of our Lord this Thursday. I honestly am so honored and so excited. We saw an airplane today, and Hermana Z said to me, Do you know how far away that plane is? Six months. Today is literally six months before I am going to see you in the little Pasco Airport! How could time have gone so quickly? Granted, I know that six months are still a solid amount of time, and I am grateful for that, but it still seems incredibly real now, where before it didn't seem so real that I would sometime take a plane ride home. There is a song that Hna Z has that we listen to, it´s called The Work: The Hardest Thing I´ve Ever Loved to Do by the Nashville Tribute band.  Anyways, it´s really precious and describes exactly how I feel! WOW! Six more months of diligent work, I promise I am going to stay obedient, and HAPPY. 

A ver, what else. Today was super awesome. We had a zone activity, we cleaned the capilla, played volleyball and then ate lunch together. It´s really fun to just take out our stress that way. Sometimes the work is hard but we also can enjoy it in a healthy way, and we did that! Yay! I have some cool pictures I will be sending your way. We went and swung in the park after (our favorite thing to do). Overall it´s been a solid day. Even if it is 107 degrees today. It´s casual. 

This week, I also had a moment that really tested me. As we were walking to the house of Hna G, the new sheep in the fold of God!, we said Buenas Noches! All happy and what not to this lady in the street. With the most vicious face she spat at our feet (here it´s even more disrespectful that it would be in the US, it´s like a big grosería). Hna Z luckily didn't really register what she had done because we kept walking quickly but turns to me and says, did she sneeze or something? Not wanting to believe what had just happened and I said, no she actually spit at us. And we kind of kept walking in silence, remembering that they too, spat at our Savior. Luckily when we got to the house of G, she had surprised us with... wait for it... LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA! So I was pretty happy. 

We walked a lot this week. Our area is really big but really awesome. We are finding more people every day that want to come to our Savior, we are gaining more confidence with the members, we are happy. Things aren't perfect, IT¨S REALLY HOT, but we are happy. We had an activity with the youth that are in the mission prep class this week and we went with a joven, and she got to ride the front row seat to the missionary life roller coaster. First off, we went looking for a reference that didn't exist, the guy had lied to us about his address (grrrr) then we went and contacted one of the ladies that we had met in the park, and we thought she was all golden and what not, well we get into her house and we realize she is flat crazy, she refuses to do a prayer with us, all she wants to do is talk about herself and then starts to pound on her piano, and I was trying to rein in the lesson and I testified that we were missionaries sent apart by God and what not, that with all due respect we weren't there to talk we were there to share the gospel, and then the poor little hermanita starts to share her testimony and she is talking really fast because she is nervous (it´s her first time doing something like this, plus the lady is a little crazy) and the lady starts hating on her testimony! And she is like if you want to convince the people, you have to talk slower. I was like, okay, that´s it crazy lady, we out. And I said, well we aren't here to convince we're just here to invite people to come unto Christ and make covenants, but I think we are going to leave now. And then she kicked us out of her house. It was fun. 

Then we walked FOREVER to get to our appt with Hno F, he is 68 years old and has been to the church 2 times and absolutely loves the message we share! He still need to ask God for his own answer but it feels like it is the truth. He has a baptismal date for the 15th of  And so the hermanita could share her testimony again, but slower, and the spirit was so strong as she testified of forever families, oh man, it´s such a beautiful feeling. At the end of the night, I asked her how she liked it (it was a tarde full of adventures) and with a great big smile and a very sweaty face, she told me, I LOVED IT! I love being a missionary. 

I do too. I love being a missionary. I have loved my beautiful one year of service. All the trials, all the miracles, all the blessings. I love my Savior. I know my Savior more than I did a year ago. 

I will see you in six months. But I´ll make um count. Keep praying for me! I love you! 

Hermana Burton