There's No Place Like Home

Home sweet home. Here I am once again, after the fastest year and a half of my life. It feels so good to be home, and yet so hard. My last week in the mission was truly a blur. I am so grateful for all the support that I received from the members in Reforma, where I was given a beautiful despedida. They tell you coming home is hard, and I knew it would be. It is. It is almost unexplainable... your life completely changes, literally overnight. I guess I should just be grateful I already speak the language. I spend my time babysitting my new nephew, or helping around the community. I'm really only me when I am in the service of other people, otherwise I just feel pretty useless. There is a loss of purpose coming home, which I imagine will get better. The temple really helps. The same Spirit of the mission still lives within my heart. I pretty much contact everyone I meet and tell them about the gospel. I'm going with the missionaries here to visit people and I try my hardest to be a good example. It is so much easier to talk about the gospel now. it's amazing. I guess it's because I understand the gospel so much more. All of my fear that I had before was gone, and I think it's because I understand the importance of our message and the joy and blessings that it brings to the people. I wish everyone could feel that, I wish we could be better missionaries to those around us. I know I am a better member missionary, and a better person for everything that I experienced while I was on the mission. What a great blessing to my life, right now and forever! Being with the family again is great, it's a big blessing. Family is central to God's plan, that is something that I know for sure. It brings me so much joy in my life, and I want all to have that same kind of joy. I guess I don't really have much to say, just wanting all my people out there to know that I am home safe and home happy, and that I am grateful for all the support, all the prayers, and everything that you all did for me during our past year and a half. I know God lives and that He has restored His true church on the earth today through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know Joseph was a man and made mistakes, just as we do, but that he really was ordained to be a prophet of God and did it incredibly well, facing adversity and eventually giving his life, sealing his testimony with his blood. I know we have a living prophet, a man who communicates with God, that leads and guides the world today. We are such a blessed people to be living on the earth today. I will keep updating the blog as time goes by, but just remember, let your light shine so they can see HIM.

Con amor,

Hermana Burton *that's the joy of being a sister missionary, you stay with the same title forever!*

What a Perfect, Divine Choice

What can I say.

Wasn't it just yesterday that we started? That I grabbed you so tight in the airport and hugged you, realizing that 18 months was a short time compared with the blessings that laid ahead? Hasn't this past year and a half flown by? I almost feel like they are sending me home early, because it feels like yesterday that I was in the restaurant eating breakfast with Dad, super nervous with my stomach churning, it`s seems like yesterday that I got here to Mexico and learned how to work with pesos and it seems like yesterday when I cried and cried, not understanding a word of what they were saying, just yesterday that I started hoping and praying that nothing would happen to my family those 18 months that I was going to give to the Lord.

And oh, how I am given them to Him. I am given Him my heart. My health. My body. My mind. My strength. I have walked thousands of miles, braved hot summers, learned patience as the doors slammed in my face and the people spit at my feet. I have given him my soul as every morning I sought Him in my studies, I grew to love Him more as I read Jesus the Christ, I became a better me as I realized that weaknesses were not the same as sins, and that the mission was an opportunity not just to change my weaknesses, but rather, to change ME. And how He has changed me.

I am more convinced every day that we are part of HIS true and living Church. I am more converted every day to my Savior and Redeemer. It is through Him that we can be saved, and only Him. I understand more how the church works, and why. I have grown to love people more that I have ever loved before, I have gained another family here in Mexico.

How I will miss you, my dear Mexico. How my heart breaks to leave you. The humble people, the venders in the streets, the traditions and abrazos and besos that come with every greeting. The food and smells of the streets, the language and the animo that comes from a culture such as this. I will miss the bus rides and the little stores, the gates that protect all the houses, the natural friendliness and acceptance that all have for us.

Most of all I will miss putting on that plaque everyday. I will miss being a emissary of my Lord and Savior. I will miss serving His children. I will miss it so much. I will miss meeting new people everyday and testifying to them of the love of God and the Restoration and how it can bless their lives and their families.

I will miss it so much.

How did it pass by so quickly?

We Know The Plan of God

Wow. The end is close. This is so exciting. And so heartbreaking. Who knew these feelings could all exist at the same time? 

Celebrated the new year with a huge party and fireworks outside our house. Didn't hardly sleep (other HB was sawing logs, lucky!) and that affected me all week. But I look for the good because I am healthy and happy and I am giving it my all and I am a representative of Jesus Christ! For 2 more weeks I will have that privilege. 

I see the people here and I feel so much love for them. I told HB that it is so hard, because I am leaving people I love here to go home to people I love. Its a lose lose, win win situation. Never been in this situation before. We actually have been talking a lot lately about my feelings and I told her yesterday, If the prophet or one of the apostles asked me to serve for the rest of my life, I would say yes. It would be so, almost impossibly, hard, but I would do it, because it would also be something beautiful. Then I paused, thought about it, and I told her, but then again, a prophet has told me that my mission is only 18 months. And that then I go home, and put in practice all that I learned and help others to do the same. They have commanded me to go home and someday get married. So I guess, even though it is so, almost impossibly, hard I will do it. I will go home. For it is what the Lord has asked me to do. I truly have learned that when we put His will first, everything will work out just fine.