Sister Mariah Burton

Hi friends and family!!  So transfers are this week and they are moving me back to Arkansas. I am going to Springdale and I'll be in the Prairie Grove ward with my new companion Sister Wamsley! I'm super excited! We both came to the mission field at the same time so it's going to be fun to see how much we've changed in the past 9 months :)  It's been sad saying goodbye to this wonderful place of Miami, Oklahoma, but I know this will be good. I'm grateful for everything I have learned here and all the amazing people that have played a huge role on my mission! Sister Najera is staying so that will be super good- she's awesome.  We had an amazing faith building experience this week! We were planning to tract a street and I had been praying that someone would be prepared on that street. I read Elder Uchtdorf's talk this week Fourth Floor, Last Door. and this gave me a lot of motivation that there would be someone on that street prepared, we just...

Hi friends and family!!  Sorry this is going to be a short email this week, but I had a great week! Sister Najera and I are working hard to find people to teach and it's been really good! We are trying to put ourselves out there more and share the good news! :) I learned a lot about being prepared this week. We had a couple experiences this week where I thought we were just going to have a short visit, but we ended up teaching a whole lesson. It was amazing to me to think that if I hadn't studied those lessons and had scriptures memorized to use, I wouldn't have been able to teach on the spot like that. This was spiritual for me, because it made me want to be even more prepared. More prepared with impactful questions and statements, because you never know 100% what you are going to teach. But if you know the doctrine and you have studied, you will be prepared to share the message of the restored gospel. This made me think about the promise in Doctrine in Covenants ...

This week we had Zone Conference and went on exchanges in Joplin again. It was a blast! We enjoyed learning so much from our mission president and his wife. Good things are happening and I love it! We talked a lot about personal revelation as well. It's very important for us to recognize how Heavenly Father speaks to us so that we can act on the things we are prompted to do. So many good things, I'm not even sure what to tell you! haha  My wonderful companion and I went and played volleyball with our investigator, we just rode by and they were out playing so we joined them and Sister Najera went to hit the ball and I was talking with our investigator and she nailed me in the head. It was so funny! Luckily it was a soft ball, but it just reminded me of the times playing volleyball with the YSA back home. We also met the guy who owns the little Dairy King in commerce which is a landmark on Route 66. It was so cool! He had previously met with missionaries and has read the who...

Hi Friends and Family!!  This week was so great! I love seeing the connections that we all have with people. There's always someone who knows someone. It's exciting. We went on exchanges with the Joplin 2nd sisters and that morning on our way there our member was telling me about where her son used to work and I had never heard of it before. Then we were teaching one of their investigators and he worked at the same place! So I asked if he knew our member and he said yes. It was so cool to be able to make that connection. It's the little things in life that make me so happy :) haha    Another amazing spiritual experience we had this week was, one of our investigators has been struggling with not smoking. We would give her the stop smoking workshop, talk about ways to stop, but turns out her reason for not stopping was simply because she didn't really want to. She liked her habit and so then she asked us to give her a couple weeks before we meet again. The next...

What a wonderful week!!  We had a really great week full of learning and growing. We had interviews with our mission president and that was really good! We watched the last four minutes of the Restoration and while we watched it we were all invited to think about what the Restoration means to us. Then we went around the room and shared our thoughts with everyone. It was amazing what everyone said! One that really stood out to me was two of the sisters said to them, it meant Clarity. I really liked this because the Restoration gives us clarity in God's plan and love for each of His children. I invite all of you to watch the last four minutes of the Restoration and ponder what it means to you. Then maybe share it with someone or me :) I know that we have been blessed with the Restoration and because we have the Book of Mormon, we are able to fully understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. How lucky are we to be on the earth at this time!   Another spiritual experience...

Happy General Conference too!  What a wonderful weekend full of so much love! Things are going good here in Miami! Other than the crazy weather of course, but as everyone says, "Just wait 15 minutes and it will change." They aren't joking when they say that haha but it got cold again and very wet. it's been fun though :)  General Conference was AMAZING!! I hope you all had the chance to watch it! It was so good! General Conference helped make me feel so much love for the people here and love for our Savior. It has also made me think about what I am doing to ACT on the promptings and knowledge I have received this weekend. I loved Elder Larry Y Wilson's talk and how he told the story on the boat and how we need to know how to properly receive personal revelation and then we need to act on it. I am going to work on asking the Lord each day, "Lord, what do I do to help solve the problem?." What do I do to help these people come closer to Christ? I k...

Hey Y'all!!  I'm staying another 6 weeks here in Miami Oklahoma!! YAY!! With Sister Najera so that will be so much fun!! We will continue to learn Spanish and help this ward grow! I'm so excited about it :)  I told the Bishop I was staying another 6 weeks and he just asked if he should find me a home to live in so I can just stay forever. haha it was so funny!  This week was pretty great! We found some new Hispanic investigators from Honduras and they are so sweet! It's been a blast learning Spanish and being able to teach them. :) This week we had a neat experience with having members involved and having investigators reach out to us. A while ago we gave an investigator a break to determine what he desires, because every time we would schedule an appointment he wouldn't answer the door when we came and we couldn't seem to stay in contact. But then the other day he reached out and contacted us and wanted to meet again. We had dinner with a member an...