MONTH mark, Week 5 at MTC

LEIH HOU Channgoi ngohdeihge gatihng&pahngyau!

I am so very grateful to be here on my mission! I LOVE being a missionary! This really is the best life I've ever had! I am SO happy here! This really is my dream life! If I was a milinare and could afford it, and am allowed to, I want to do this to the day I die! This is what I want to do for the rest of my life!
I know the opposition is strong here out on the mission, but I am stronger here, I have the Spirit with me constantly and just focusing on this work only has really given me great joy. I love Love LOVE my life here! I LOVE my district! I LOVE the people! And I'm also even falling in love with the language haha :) I am finding it quite surprisingly easier to be here in the MTC than my prior life, I think because I am able to be more focused here. I am able to be more aware of the hand of the Lord in every aspect of life and my confidence in Him has grown so much, I know He has forgiven me of my sins, and I know I am His daughter, I know He is pleased with me because I can feel His Spirit working through me. I have so much strength here because of Him. I am achieving all these almost impossible tasks because of Him. I can really do and achieve ANYTHING with his strength, I know that He is with me to help and support me Every step of the way, even in my preparations.
For example, my companion and I finally got sick (this sickness has been knocking each people in the district so far and it has finally reached us), and I needed to sleep during my language study and preparation times because of it. I had to translate and study the lesson on the Atonement on Saturday morning that we had a whole week to prepare for the TRC that night. We were fortunate enough to practice our principles of the whole Plan of Salvation Lesson to our teacher Sister Masterson that morning, and I had just barely finished translating the Atonement Principle and studied it a little bit before hand (and my brain was just shutting down during the study because I was still sick). But when we taught Sister Masterson, I felt the Spirit, I taught her as if she was someone I knew, someone I loved very much that didn't know of our Savior Jesus Chirst and the sacrifices He has made for us. And the words just came back into my memory and I was able to share that principle very close to how I wanted to share it in English about the Savior and His atonement. After teaching her the whole lesson all in Cantonese, she gave us feedbacks. She told us that it was the best and most simple and clear Jesus Christ and His Atonement principle, And the whole lesson that she has so far heard in her teaching, and that with few more polishing and adding some more questions, she would actually teach that lesson the way we just taught her right out in Hong Kong to real investigators! She really complemented us and it made me realize that God has really been with us, even in our preparation and practice. There is no way I could have done what I just did, but i know that this really is God'd work, and He helps us even in our process of preparation. The MTC really is the Lord's training center. God really does love each and one of His children. So much that not only does He prepare the people to hear His message of happiness and Salvation, but He also prepares His servants the Missionaries to learn to teach with His Spirit.

This truly is the Great and Marvelous Work. And I am so honored and privileged to be apart of it. The salvation of the souls of each one of God's children are all that matters to me. I really want to do my best, give my all, to invite people to come unto Jesus Christ. Because all that I am, Everything I have, Everything good I do, is all because I turned to my Savior Jesus Christ. Because I let myself turn to Him, He really has changed me to be who I am today, and I love myself. I would be absolutley be nothing without Him. I have no purpose in life without Him. Because of Him, families can be for ever, for eternity, we can be together with our loved ones and friends, everyone we care so much about for eternity, happiness without end! This life here on earth is not everything, it's not our only life here and I Know it, without a shadow of a doubt :) And all my desire is that I can really invite people to come unto Christ. It gives me the greatest joy when they do, because I know it would make them very happy and also our Savior very happy, I know He has given us everything, His entire earthly life for us, He suffered everything and paid the price of all of our sins for us on the Garden of Gathsemany (I can't spell), and he suffered on the cross and died for us so that we really can be forgiven and be cleansed from our mistakes and sins so that we can live with our perfect Heavenly Father who is clean and pure every whit for eternity. Jesus Christ has done Everything for us because He loves each one of us and His Father very much. And it brings Him great joy when we accept His ultimate gift of atonement.

Yesterday, the older Cantonese Speaking district flew out to Hong Kong (yes, including our beloved Sister Kiene), we miss them, but we are very excited for them. I know that they are awesome people and they are as prepared as they can be, I can't wait to hear about the joy that they are able to feel as they share what is so precious to them-the gospel, the time, the love-all for the people in Hong Kong. This is really truly an exciting work.

I hope everyone had a great Pioneers day! We sure did! No, no fireworks this time, but we had a great fireside where we sang the hymn, "Come come ye saints" so powerfully together. They lyrics apply to us as missionaries SO much! We, missionaries Are pioneers ourselves because we are pioneering what we have never done, and for some of us, what our family has never done. We do this because of our love for the Lord our God and for the people. For as long as I shall live, for as long as I am here on earth, I want to do my best to testify of my Savior Jesus Christ, His love, and bring all these people I love closer to Him.

The Provo temple is back up and running :) I have really missed it so much, and our beloved whole TEN Elders will be doing the temple work for my male ancestors :) They are excited to be apart of it.

Oh yeah, funny thing, our fire alarm went off this morning at 2am, it was quite the expirience. From this I learned that although I am a heavy sleeper, that fire alarm does wake me up and that I won't die when there's a disaster in our building haha

Anyways, I think my time is up, but I really love you so very much! I pray for you, often individually, I hope everyone is doing well, God be with you, and if you ever find the time, I would love to hear from you :)

We just had our one month anniversary since coming to MTC, it's quite an accomplishment! xD

Ngoh Hou Ngoi Leihdeih!!!

Sister Burningham~!

Week 4 at the MTC

Tue, Jul 19, 2011

Leih hou ma!!!!!!

How is everyone?

I am doing well!

I have been really really growing,

but let me just begin by telling you that I love love love TRC,

even though until we have done TRC on Saturday we're nervous and stressed preparing for it, I love the comforting feedbacks we get afterwards.

Last TRC it was said that all the investigators/volunteers understood everything we have said and have felt the spirit! And they were very impressed that we were already speaking Cantonese at that level in 3 and 1/2 weeks. And in my companionship we were able to get our investigator to pray with us and he said he would pray everyday! Even though we couldn't understand most of his Cantonese, we were still able to teach with spirit and were able to tell Him how much God loves him. I am grateful that this is God's work, because I know that without His spirit we would not be able to teach like that. Spirit really is everything in this work, and it really makes up the lack that we have in Cantonese. Lately I have realized that I've unconsciously been expecting to speak Cantonese in the level of language ability that I was able to achieve in 9-10 years in English. I shouldn't expect to reach that point of fluency in just 3-4 weeks now, that's just being a bit too hard on myself haha. The language is still hard, but I am at peace, even though I feel like the rest of other elders and my companion knows more Cantonese than I do, I am not frustrated anymore. I know I can trust God and learn at His pace. And I know that language isn't everything in teaching, the Spirit is more powerful. And I can feel Him whenever I testify, and I know how to do that in Cantonese, to bear simple testimony with all my heart.

Another thing that has really helped me this week was working on the Christlike attribute of Faith (last few weeks I've been working on Obedience), And I tried to grow in that attribute by trying to be more grateful. Because lately, I have really been struggling with my confidence. But by recognizing more and more all the big and little blessings God has given me in my life, I was able to be more humbled, yet confident that my obedience did work and that God is pleased with me. Because I was able to recognize His blessings, I am more confident than ever that God is pleased with what I ask Him, because He grants me them. I Know He will grant unto me all my righteous desires, because I know I won't be asking for anything contrary to His will because my life is centered in Him and His work (Helaman 10:4-5). And another thing I have learned through Gratitude is recognizing how Jesus Christ's Atonement apply to Missionary work. It really is all out of love. Love is to sacrifice. Jesus Christ has lived and suffered and died for all of us. He wasn't promised that because of what He did, all of us would accept His Atonement and follow Him, but He still did it, because He loved each and one of us and wanted to do everything in His power to somehow help us all return to God. And as a missionary, we should think of it the same way. We are not gurranteed that people will listen to what we say, accept our message and our invitatione to Come unto Christ, but we do this out of love. We sacrifice being with our loved ones, time, our job/education, our savings, everything for the Children of God in this world who are far from the Lord. We do this because it is worth it because it is love. And no one may accept, but we know we have done our best, and it WILL benefit somebody even if it is just ourselves. Somebody will come closer to the Lord. D&C 10 worth of souls is great in the sight of God, and how great shall be your joy if you bring even one soul unto God :)

I am happy, and though it is hard work I am at peace. Christ has suffered and been treated the worst but He never complained, and I am definitely not grater than He. I have so much to be grateful for. I love you all so much, and I hope each and one of you are coming closer to the Lord as I am coming closer to Him :)

Thank you Ashley for your comment, it really means a lot what you said, my mom copied the comment and sent it in a letter for me :) Thank you thank you, I hope you are doing well, I love you

And thank you Emily for your comment too, you didn't even have to remind me of the game haha :)

Ngoh Ngoi Lei,

Sister Burningham

Week 3 in the MTC

Bastilan! (that's Cebuano,,,)

I can't believe it's already P-day!

this last week went by very very fast and it freaks me out a bit.

I only have about 8 weeks left and i don't know how i feel about how fast weeks go by here,,

Today we were on our challenge to speak only in Cantonese but I already failed by 7:45 this morning,,,,

sigh, but I'm going to speak as much cantonese during the day as I can anyways,

We had our first TRC (don't ask me what that stands for) where cantonese speaking voluntary people come and help us practice teaching lessons on them as if it was real. it was hard, we hardly understood what they were saying back to us in cantonese, but I felt better afterwards, because most of them were returned missionaries from Hong Kong themselves and they told our teacher that they were impressed at our language skill that we were able to achieve in 2 and 1/2 weeks, apparently our teachers have been pushing us quite hard. That gives me a bit of comfort knowing that I'm not way behind in learning cantonese, but I am still working hard because we only have about 8ish more weeks of help and training here before we are thrown out in hong kong.

I made my first "phone call" appointment in cantonese with one of our investigators and it went pretty well, I was able to understand the person enough to schedule them at 12:45pm on friday, I was proud of myself for understanding that, but of course there were lots of other things that flew over my head.

So our roommates, Sister Shaw and Sister Apina left to report to Philippines (Cebuano speaking) yesterday and we miss them, our room feels pretty empty with just 3 people in 6 people capacity.

I am more and more loving my district. We are all so different and unique, but I feel like we are a family now, I feel like I have 10 brothers haha, I love them very much, and I can see so much potential in each of them. We are getting better at focusing and working hard, our improvements makes me happy.

I am so grateful to be out here. In class, we watched a clip of Elder Holland's talk that he gave in MTC devotional some years ago, and I have never seen him so passionate and so all over the place as he was in the clip before, his chastisement was strong, but not hurtful, but very effective, and his testimony is perhaps even more powerful and amazing than the general conference ones! He is so incredible, and when he expresses his love, we just feel so loved even though he doesn't even know us personally. He talked about how this our first mission opportunity is the best thing we ever had a chance to do and the hardest thing we have ever done, yet we will never ever be able to experience this again, because nothing is like the first mission. He talked about how serving our Father in Heaven requires THE Best, our best, we are participating in salvation of human soul, and we need to be voluntarily, lovingly, humbly, be willing to do God's will whose work this is. And I know what he told us is true. This really is the best thing ever. This really is my dream life, more than how I dreamed it. I am 24/7 living just for the cause of this work, to invite as many children of God as we can to come unto our Lord Jesus Christ. And you have no idea how happy I am even though it is so difficult, challenging and very demanding and exhausting. I know God is with me, I am so surprised at how much I am able to get done, well, not really, because I knew God would be with me to help me, it's just that I am really seeing it happen first hand. I love this quote: "The Lord is in the detail of our lives, He has no distracting hobby", Our Lord loves us. Jesus Christ, He loves us, and He can help us, He HAS helped us, and He Will continue to help us and love us as long as we let Him,
And I love Him, and serving Him here is my greatest joy and honor. I am so grateful that I am worthy enough to be His instrument. I am so honored that God has entrusted us with this responsibility to extend invitations to His precious children in Hong Kong. He has prepared the people there, the field is white ready to harvest, we need to grow in our trust and faith to let Him introduce us to those that are ready for the Gospel.

Ngoh Ngoi Leih,

Leih Jimuih

MTC Week 2 Jul 5, 2011

Hi everyone! how was everyone's 4th of July?

ours was fabulous! we actually were allowed to go outside within the mtc grounds to see the fireworks from the byu stadium of fire or something on July 2nd Saturday!

we had a special program and then free icecream bar and then special permission to do that!

We didn't end up going to bed until 11:30 or so that night though, so we were dead tired on sunday, but sundays are always really peaceful and restful and relaxing and nice, so it wasn't too bad,

My district is improving and we're uniting more, we had a devotional review and when everyone shared their thoughts all of a sudden I felt even closer to them, and one of our teacher was having a struggle in her class at byu and we were able to have an experience of witnessing our power to help people by helping our teacher, it was really amazing.

I am utilizing my gym time well here, if I do say so myself, playing game of 4 squares, and I am lifting a 20 pound weight 30 times straight everyday, running on the eliptical? thing for 10 minutes, doing stretches to work on my flexibility, and some sit ups, all of that everyday. I am lifting weights because I cannot do any push ups, so I am thinking that if I have more strength in my arms, I might be able to push myself up better. It's intimidating and quite embarrasing to go lift my little weight in the middle of all these hard core Elders though, haha.

So I still really love it here in the MTC, I am actually struggling somewhat with the language though. Cantonese is so hard that it sometimes makes me cry. It's just that I have so much in my heart that I want to express that I have all these things I want to share to our investigators, but I feel stuck with the few words and phrases I know in Cantonese. I have also thought about how I'm always having to learn to express myself in new ways, like trying to speak Korean more because no one knew Japanese, and then to learn English in America, and now that I can finally maturely(?) express myself about what I feel and what I know in English, I am called to learn to express and share in Cantonese, it frustrates me a bit. I really want to share this message that has brought so much blessings into my life, but I need to start over it feels like. I also don't feel like I have a base, a foundation of who I am, not having an actual solid language. But because of this gospel, I know this. I know that I am a child of God, and that He is my Heavenly Father, and He is constant, and always there for me, He never changes and loves me completely. He is the only unchanging thing in my life. I can only trust Him, to depend on Him, to trust Him with my all, because I can't do this without Him. Without Him I can not possibly learn this so called 2nd hardest language in the world in like 11ish weeks. Without God I have nothing, all that I have now, God has given them to me, my dear family, a new father on earth, true friends that care about me, education to reach my potential, happiness, peace, and a heart full of love. I have hope because I have God. I can only rely on Him, I am going to master the language of the Spirit. I am going to make the most of this 9ish weeks I have left, I don't feel that it's enough, but I trust the Lord that that is just the time that Lord Knows I need. I am tired, but I have a fire within me, I know what I'm about to share with the people in Hong kong is true, with all my heart, I have no single doubt, it is my absolute knowledge, and I know this is where I need to be right now. I am going to work HARD. extra hard. And I am doing my best here.

I left some things behind coming here, including people I grately care about and miss, but I know that they are in the Lord's care, there is no one else on earth that could take better care of my precious things than the Lord, because those people are also very precious to the Lord. I love Him, He is my best friend, I tell Him everything and if I listen, He tells me everything I need to know as well. I am so grateful to have found Him when I did, I am grateful for who I am and who I am becoming. I love you. Ngoh Ngoi Leih!!

Leih Jimuih

Jun 28

FIRST WEEK AT THE MTC!!!

Leih Hou Leih Hou everyone!! :)

Tuesdays are my P-days and I have 30 minutes to write my emails so we'll see how much I can cram in!

I am loving the MTC SO MUCH!!!

I am very happy here and I know this is where I need to be right now!

Learning Cantonese is exhausting and hard, but fun, it's like we're singing more than talking, and I'm learning a lot, I enjoy the language,

We have devotionals every tuesdays and a fireside every sundays, but last week we had a special devotional on Thursday where Elder Bednar spoke! He talked about how to be a Preach-My-Gospel-Missionary and it was very encouraging and strengthening talk, I love him very much. And last week was apparently a crazy week for the MTC, because they held the training for all the newly called mission presidents, and so the Prophet and his apostles all came too! I didn't get to see any of them except for at the devotional I saw some of them with Elder Bednar.

I love the Spirit so much here, I can feel it so constantly, and I feel so clean and pure, I am very happy and I am not distracted or depressed at all, except for in class our district can get loud and crazy that we've been struggling with, but we've been doing our best to be better, more reverent and unified, at least for me, I prayed for my district, especially this one elder that drives me a bit crazy, I prayed for unity and reverence, and hopefully things will turn out better. Apparently we are the largest district since for long in the MTC, 12 of us are squished into this tiny classroom which I guess is why we've been struggling a bit. But other than that, things are just great, I have a great companions Sister Kelly (she kind of looks like Becky Heumann from Brighton 1st Ward), and Sister Kiene (pronounced like Keenee) who was a solo sister in the older district until Sister Kelly and I arrived here on wednesday. We are the only sisters in our zone.

Food is good, it's like the Cannon Center at BYU, except I was starting to get a bit discouraged with the food until finally last night for dinner they served Spaghetti!!! I was looking for pasta this whole time whenever we went to eat! haha

Adjusting to MTC schedule wasn't too bad to my surprise, I really feel supported and strengthened here it's incredible.

I have been growing and learning a lot here, my testimony is also growing as well, In thePreach My Gospel, page 17 it says " For you to grow in the gospel and stay on the path that leads to eternal life, you need to develop a habit of gospel study." And that is really true. In life, we can't stay in one spot, we are either growing and progressing towards our full potential, or digressing, forgetting what we have learned, it is important that we continue to grow because otherwise we will only go backwards.

If we want to grow, the habit of scripture study is the best. Because scriptures are God's words, and that's where personal revelations come, it's most effective tool to growth than any other worldly philosophies and helpful tips, if we turn to the Lord, He will teach us, read that section if you have access, I recommand it :)

I have given my 18 months to the Lord, and I know that the time I have now is not mine, it is the Lord's, and I can't waste it, I need to make the most of it.

This time isn't about me, it's about Lord's work and the people I have been called to serve. And that motivates me through the learning of Cantonese and all the work I do here. I really honestly just want to go out there now and start inviting people to come unto Christ, in whom there is hope and eternal happiness, but I know I'm not ready, I need to learn this language, and I'm going to do it because I love the people there, I really want them to have this happiness that I have been able to find. And for them, for the Lord, I can do anything.

Only 5 min left! I hope to write more next week! I will write to my personal messages to my parents now, I love you all!!!!

Leih Jimuih (my chinese name! sounds very close to Burningham! Leih Sister)

p.s. remember you can write me on dearelder.comdearelder.com if you hkave time ;)