"The First Great Commandment"

Hello everyone!!

So I feel like I have complete opposite stories in this email...it was just a crazy week with feeling about every emotion...but that's okay. That's the life of a missionary. But I'll start off with the funny story...and kinda embarrassing.

So Saturday we went to Nanay Celia's home for a family lunch...they have this big celebration when they celebrate the deceased...a reunion of the date that they passed away. Anyway, we were at her husband's "death reunion." Haha I guess you could call it that when I had the most horrific thing happen to me! I of course started off with being the center of the party as this big white Americana entering the party but that wasn't the worse. We were just sitting there eating with her grandkids that we are teaching...Joy and Jesselle when this "guy" was leaning in the doorway and winked at me. I turned to my companion and said..."Oh of course, got the creeper guy winking at me." And then she said, "Oh that's no guy, that's a GIRL!" WHAT?! So this "tomboy" or aka lesbian makes her way into the room...totally checking me out and then with the best pick up line ever given says, "Ate, your kinda chubby." AHH!! THE HORROR!! I didn't know what to say!! Salamat....I guess?! Gross! Then she sat right next to me and was staring at my nametag...hopefully just that! Then was asking for my facebook and phone number....I jumped up and said, "umm...we gotta go..." Now that I felt violated!! Then as we were leaving another guy was holding onto my hand and trying to drag me a little bit too close to him...had that happen many times...but not a tomboy!! Oh man, it was the worst but the funniest! We were dying laughing as I was ranting about it. I've never seen Sister Lacanienta almost pee her pants. Haha It was quite the experience I never want to experience again.

Besides that story that I hope you all got a good laugh out of...I had an eye opener this week as well...besides tomboys hitting on sister missionaries. Haha but this was about a kind of love that hurts. Have you ever loved so much that it hurts? Or see someone's potential, what they can become but instead they choose the wrong and don't follow the simple commandments God gives us to be happy and find heaven in this life? This happened this week with Jonathon and his family. I love him and his family so much. But this past week was just not going right with them. Jonathon makes excuses to not meet with us and then going back to drinking again... And then his family doesn't come to church and choose to do things are not obedient to God's commandments. It just finally hurt me after two transfers of loving, caring and serving this family with all my heart. A love that has grown so much within me for them causes so much pain because I see what could happen in their lives, but they don't follow the simple plan Heavenly Father has given us. And what's the saddest thing is that they don't get it. They don't get that they are truly His sons and daughters and that they could be together forever and this life could become a lot happier, and lot easier if they would just put their trust in the Lord. It just hurts to see the one's you love to suffer this way. But it makes you think how Heavenly Father feels. And I realize that I have to experience this, just a little bit of that feeling to understand how He feels. So now I know, and all I can do is give it over to Him. I want all the blessings for them but maybe it's not their time to have them. But even Christ taught that...3 Nephi 18:32. I don't know when Jonathon will be ready or anyone else. But I can help him be prepared and keep trying. To prepare the way for him someday to come unto Christ and be healed. And if so, how great my joy, and my greatest worth. D&C 15:6. We don't stop because that is what this is all about. Bringing people unto Christ.

I just want to end with Jeffrey R. Holland said once...I felt like the words stuck to me, it comes from his talk "The First Great Commandment."

My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword” to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live.

I testify from the bottom of my heart, with the intensity of my soul, to all who can hear my voice that those apostolic keys have been restored to the earth, and they are found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To those who have not yet joined with us in this great final cause of Christ, we say, “Please come.” To those who were once with us but have retreated, preferring to pick and choose a few cultural hors d’oeuvres from the smorgasbord of the Restoration and leave the rest of the feast, I say that I fear you face a lot of long nights and empty nets. The call is to come back, to stay true, to love God, and to lend a hand. I include in that call to fixed faithfulness every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.” That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but it was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well. To the youth of the Church rising up to missions and temples and marriage, we say: “Love God and remain clean from the blood and sins of this generation. You have a monumental work to do, underscored by that marvelous announcement President Thomas S. Monson made yesterday morning. Your Father in Heaven expects your loyalty and your love at every stage of your life.”

To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having set our “hand to the plough,” we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all very much and I hope that if you do ever or have experienced that kinda of love, to not give up on them but to keep trying, to keep loving and to never stop. I love you all so much. I know that this is Christ's work that He has called all of us to do and I know this love is real. Mahal na mahal ko kayo and have a great week :)

Love, Sister Burnham

 

 

"Zone P-day"

 

"Language of Love"

Hi Family and Friends!!

What a week! So fast and something happening everyday! We seriously have something going on everyday and traveling from place to place to do exchanges with the sisters. It's super busy, tiring but fun. And it makes time FLY! Which is kinda sad but good too. We just focus on the work and our missionaries in our zone all the time. And sometimes goof off when you find out Elder Wise, my zone leader starts singing "Bubblegum, bubblegum. bubblegum for me..." 'You're a Nacho Libre fan?!" Haha I'm surrounded by them! It's great :) And me and Sister Lacanienta are way too much alike...like we both have boyfriends waiting for us, her parents watch Frazier before going to bed and we went to Hawaii two weeks before our mission to visit friends....many more weird similarities. It's just great :)

So I'm not going to lie, I'm liking the idea of two Christmas'! Thanks fam for holding out for me. I might be kinda weird and missionary like but I'll be me. Haha Thank you for that gift. That's all I really want for Christmas...and a rice cooker :) Haha

So for the title of the email...so many times I was like "Sakit ang puso ko!" Sick to the heart! Because I've never had in so many times people ask me for money. It's been hard to say no, especially to the Gregorio family. Winona does our laundry but she's been asking for the money early so that her family can eat or get medicine for her sick kids or husband. Poor Jonathon...he had some digestion problems and shared the whole story with us...which was really funny! Haha But he doesn't have a job...Winona is the only way to get income for their nine kids! It's just so hard...and it really was making me feel sick this week. How much I took for granted the temporal things I had and have been blessed with. I felt terrible. But after talking a lot about it with my companion, I know that the best thing we can do is love and serve them and give them the best gift, which is the gospel and eternal life. I've been reading Doctrine and Covenants this week and it says many times that the best gift of all of Heavenly Father's gifts is eternal life...which it will be for them and for us. Someday they will all be members and all make it to the temple. Then after this life, money won't matter...but what will is the covenants they made and how will they kept those promises. If I could just be a small part of helping them along that way, then that is good enough for me :)

I know that God is aware of all of us and the thing that He wants for us is to just come home to Him. To obtain that gift of eternal life and all the happiness that is just waiting for us, if we just follow His Son and do what is asked of us. It's that simple and beautiful. I love this work and I love all of you. More than you can know. I hope you all have a great week and go help someone along the way, we can't make this journey on our own. Like Dieter F. Uchtdorf once said,

"Have you ever wondered what language we all spoke when we lived in the presence of God? I have strong suspicions that it was German, though I suppose no one knows for sure. But I do know that in our premortal life we learned firsthand, from the Father of our spirits, a universal language—one that has the power to overcome emotional, physical, and spiritual barriers.

That language is the pure love of Jesus Christ.

It is the most powerful language in the world.

The love of Christ is not a pretend love. It is not a greeting-card love. It is not the kind of love that is praised in popular music and movies.

This love brings about real change of character. It can penetrate hatred and dissolve envy. It can heal resentment and quench the fires of bitterness. It can work miracles.

We received our “first lessons”⁹ in this language of love as spirits in God’s presence, and here on earth we have opportunities to practice it and become fluent. You can know if you are learning this language of love by evaluating what motivates your thoughts and actions.

When your primary thoughts are focused on how things will benefit you, your motivations may be selfish and shallow. That is not the language you want to learn.

But when your primary thoughts and behaviors are focused on serving God and others—when you truly desire to bless and lift up those around you—then the power of the pure love of Christ can work in your heart and life. That is the language you want to learn.

As you become fluent in this language and use it in your interactions with others, they will recognize something in you that may awaken in them a long-hidden feeling to search for the right way on the journey back to their heavenly home. After all, the language of love is their true native language too.

This deep and abiding influence is a language that reaches to the very soul. It is a language of understanding, a language of service, a language of lifting and rejoicing and comforting.

Learn to use the universal language of Christ’s love."

Mahal na mahal ko kayo! Have a great week as you are learning the universal language of Christ's love!

Love, Sister Burnham

"President Peterson helping us with practice teaching....tee hee!"

"My injury!!"

"Exchanges"

"Zone p-day! Minute to Win it games.....my team got 2nd place."

"Duran from Mindoro....GROSS!"

"Pizza Hut Goodness!"

December 30th!!

Kumusta po kayo?!!! Ang aking pamilya at mga kaibigan!!

Wow, where did this week go?! So so fast! It's crazy how fast the time is going...especially when you open your inbox and the trunky letter is staring at you!! AHH!!! December 30th, I'll be leaving this beautiful paradise...it makes me sad...but just so everyone knows, Christmas doesn't start till then...fyi. Haha Just kidding, I'm just lucky to celebrate Christmas here, Christmas in the Philippines is the BEST!!

We had a really busy week, so busy that we're just running all the time and I might or might not have tripped and scraped my knees really bad...haha that or I fought with a bear...that's what I told my zone leaders, they totally believed me. Haha But it's all good, just kinda gross...got knee goobers. Haha But I made it through the week and me and Sister Lacanienta are changing the world here in Lipa, even if it's one lesson at a time :) She's a great partner in crime. We work hard but we have fun :)

So the story of the week...so I've told you about Jonathon before. He's the best...I don't know what it is but with him and Ricky...I really felt like I came to the mission for them...these men who are my dad's age but how I know that I was sent to them. Anyway, we went to Gregorio's one night to teach Jonathon, he was his happy normal self but he kinda made some random excuse to leave and we ended up teaching the kids. Bummer...but as we were leaving, Jonathon was just sitting downstairs watching the TV. We said our goodbyes and that we would see him tomorrow at church and he was just really silent and not his usually happy self. I asked what the matter was....he was just silent, almost close to tears. It was silent for a time then we opened up how we were here for him and his family. He then gradually opened up how he just felt so down...how there was no hope for him, that he had already failed as a father and that he didn't know if he could carry on. He knew that though when he read the Book of Mormon, when he prayed that he felt a taste of relief but soon thoughts of darkness entered his mind. We just listened, and encouraged him to not give up and explained that those feelings, those bad thoughts were not from a loving Heavenly Father but from a completely different source. He started to tear up as we spoke for 40 minutes, standing outside his humble home and having a heart to heart with a father who just wanted to be the best for his family, everything for his family. After our discussion, he thanked us for being here and we told him that we came for him. I couldn't help the tears that came to my eyes as the spirit confirmed to me that was true. That the Lord had suffered for me to come to this place, to this wonderful family to become an eternal family. Jonathon didn't come to church but I know that it will just take time and love and patience to fight these battles. And I know that it will take more from me and Sister Lacanienta to help him fight those battles. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I know that both sides are there. The bad and the good. I've seen it so much more in this man that I've come to love so much...I think that's why I loved Ricky so much. Because he was able to fight those battles and still is today. He's doing better now according to the zone leaders over there. I'm going to go visit him before I come home. I know that the battles are real and it's our job, our calling to help those fight those battles, we are soldiers in a sense.

Thank you all for your support and prayers, if I could ask for anything is for your prayers to be for the Gregorio family...especially Jonathon. He needs those prayers more than me. I love you all...have a great week and help someone fight a battle within.

Mahal ko kayo!!

Love, Sister Burnham

"Conversion"

Magandang umaga po sa inyo!

Another week has already passed by?! WOW! It's almost a year since I've lived in the Philippines, it's crazy! I remember my first week here, treking through the jungle, sweating from every pore, eating rice every day and not understanding anything that was going around me was a HUGE change! Now, that's just life. Haha Still like that but I've grow to love it more than ever, so much FUN!! It's all I know now. Haha 

So I learned the biggest lesson this week! Well, lots of lessons but this one hit home to me. It's about conversion. So I've always struggled throughout my mission with beating myself up if someone wasn't progressing, or they weren't having spiritual experiences or witnesses that what we were teaching was true. I always thought it was my fault  that I was doing something wrong was the reason they weren't becoming converted. But it finally clicked to me this week that it's not the missionaries job to convert, it's the spirit. And especially with the spirit that is able to work in them from the Book of Mormon. In Helaman 15:7-8 it says that they were brought to a knowledge of the truth through the holy scriptures OR the Book of Mormon that led them to faith unto repentance. And that it brought a mighty change upon them. Well, this past week, I saw this in Yasmin (a former investigator of a part member family) and Jonathon. Their lessons were amazing! We had kinda missed out on them lately because of the typhoon and being sick, but we finally were able to teach them again this week and the spirit that has been working with them while we were gone was a testimony builder to me. They kept reading the Book of Mormon and prayed even though we weren't there and the light that was on their faces, the change that I could tell was already taking place softened my heart and the Holy Ghost whispered to me that it wasn't me converting these wonderful people, but the Lord and the spirit that was sent to them to confirm the truths that they had been reading from the Book of Mormon. It was almost unreal to see this change take place and I know with all my heart that the Book of Mormon changes lives. It brings the spirit into their lives to lead to that mighty change. My job simply is to just teach the doctrine clearly, testify and invite. The Spirit does the rest. I love this gospel, I love this work that I've been called to do. I too have experience many times what that scripture says while here on my mission and I hope that when that day comes that I come home, that I will be a better person, a person that had a mighty change of heart. 

I know that this work is the work of the Lord. That it is Him that does the converting. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it truly brings others unto Christ. That's why we preach the gospel. To bring others unto Him. I know this to be true with all of my heart, it has changed me and I hope that each one of you will let it teach you. Forget yourselves and preach the gospel, do your part. And watch the conversion happen, sometimes it takes time but it happens. 

I love each one of you so so much. Thank you for your prayers and your words of encouragement over the past 13 months. I know that I wouldn't be able to do this marvelous work without you. Go have those experiences and see the Lord's hand in your life and especially in others. 

Mahal na mahal ko kayo!! Maraming salamat po para sa inyo!

Nagmamahal, Sister Burnham 

 

 

"Family Home Evening with the Gregorio family."

"Service Project"

"Pictures from our Patriarch....so cool!"