Sister Burnham: Patience is Required

Family and Friends!

This week was a good one, lots more success in our little area. We have a very potential investigator! We've only taught her twice but she has accepted a baptismal date, came to church yesterday and had some friends there. I think they, the members felt kinda bad for not referring her to us earlier...we found her, Sandy one our own. She's super sweet and I'm starting to feel like things are picking up. We also have lots of new investigators and hopefully things will start progressing for them as well. It's a good time, lots of lots of work to do! Love working as a missionary and meeting people everyday. It's just fun :) No other time in my life except now can I just go out everyday and talk to people and share the message of happiness and love to people. It really is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We also are helping a lot of less active families out here...by teaching their kids who are 9 and haven'y been baptized yet. It's going really good and we're becoming good friends with them and they are starting to reactive. This one family, Saguinsin, I love them! They are so sweet and lots of fun...super poor though. I think this is one of the poorest families I have even visited and probably have the hardest struggles but it's amazing to see the gospel help them. Brother, or President, he is actually the second counselor in the presidency. (Ya, our branch has a lot of struggles). Anyways though, he's coming back more fully and we are also helping them work towards going to the temple, the same for a lot of families. It's fun been working with all these families working towards the temple. And as a share about it, I can't help but feel the peace that comes to my heart that I'll be with my family forever. And I want that same thing for them. As I use that eternal truth in my teaching more lately, it really intrigues people how they can be with their family forever and they understand more why they need this in their lives. It's really true about that saying about missionaries, that we leave our families for a short time so others can be with theirs forever. There's nothing more that I want for these families that I'm coming to love to be sealed together in the House of the Lord.

Well, why this is titled "patience is required" comes from a quote that I love and feel like I have been learning a lot lately. "Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required." - Pres. Thomas S. Monson. Isn't that true? And I feel like it's something Heavenly Father is really trying to teach me right now with everything. I also read in the Book of Mormon in Alma 17:10-11 about the sons of Mosiah going out as missionaries and later the hardships they had. But later the Lord gave them success...Alma 26:27. I really love how they were able to overcome all and how at one point, they were about to turn back...but they didn't. And look at all the good they did...(the rest of Alma 26). I know that I need to be more like those missionaries. And especially through everything and being patient, I'm becoming the kinda of person Heavenly Father wants me to be. I'm grateful that I'm in His hands and that He loves me enough to mold me.

I love you all so much!! I pray that we can all be a little bit more patient and especially see in life the things that matter most. Especially always becoming the person Heavenly Father wants us to become and working towards an eternal family.

Mahal ko kayo!!

Love, Sister Burnham