God Has a Plan

18 November - 24 November

Hey oh hey, what a wonderful day (week)!

I have had a lot of good things happen this week! No music class on Monday! Whitney went with me to institute on Tuesday, and we had a good talk afterwards! On Wednesday, I performed my music solo, "Caro Mio Ben" (a song in Italian) and did a great job. I could see how proud my teacher was of me! That evening, Isaac from the ward came over to help me edit the Plan of Salvation video that was just posted today. I was so excited about it! I was literally jumping for joy all around my apartment :)

Two of the missionaries who taught me this week

I've had some great lessons with the missionaries (and some not so great lessons) this week. I've cried and laughed! Seriously, one set of elders told me jokes every time before they started the lesson. It was GREAT! Why do ghosts love to take the elevator? So their spirits can be uplifted! Also, I ran into an elder that I met when I was a missionary! I had dinner a few times with his family, so it was so fun to see him and send a picture to his mom!

Elder Reynolds from Tallahassee, FL

I've also been filming people this weekend. I'm so excited for my roommate Katie's video to be posted soon! She is literally the cutest and has brought me so much joy! She is so kind, thoughtful, giving, and Christlike. God knew what I needed in a friend when he sent her and her sister to be our new roomies this semester!

I was a bit overwhelmed this weekend with the sheer amount of work I need to finish before I fly home for Thanksgiving break next Tuesday. On Saturday, I was so stressed, but I ended up sitting in the celestial room after work for a bit to say a prayer of gratitude. Every time I wanted to ask for something, I stopped and rephrased it to be something I was grateful for. After that prayer, I felt the so loved and full and peaceful and joyous. I just sat there and soaked in all the good feelings for a while, then read a bit in the New Testament before going home to finish an assignment (that literally took me 3 hours...). But I did it! And I'm on track to get everything done before break so that I can enjoy time with my family :) Just have to keep working hard.

We used random things (like this potato!) to create stamps in art class!

Drawing I did of my skates for Art Education Class

I know that my Savior lives. I strive to follow the Spirit and help others. I had the special opporutnity to cry with a friend today that was in need. I was able to be there for her and offer encouragement and love. But I am far from perfect. When it's late at night, my filter disappears and I let my annoyance show (like at ward prayer... yikes...). But God loves me. Imperfections and all, God loves me and is so proud of me. He knows I have righteous desires and that I am working so hard to follow the promptings I recieve from the Spirit. Afterall, I've put in so many hours to this YouTube channel thing that I'm doing, and the fruit is very small. But I'm trusting in God and trying my best to be a light in the lives of others. Have a happy Thanksgiving and don't gobble til you wobble! ;)

Much love,
Emily Burnham

Plan of Salvation "LOVE" Cut-outs

Plan of Salvation "LOVE" Cut-outs:

   

 

 

 

 

    

Friends and Filming

11 November - 17 November 2019

What a phenomenal week! I felt so loved and cared about in my lessons with the missionaries at work. I was able to open up to them about real struggles I am having, and the Spirit was so strong. I know they are called of God to do His work, and despite their imperfections, the Lord carries them through the work. I am so happy to be fulfilling my purpose at my job: helping the missionaries become excited about their purpose.

On Monday, I had my own private voice lesson (for 15 minutes) with my singing teacher, and I feel like I am improving a lot! It's getting easier to hit the high notes.

On Wednesday, I got to go to my art teacher's house to take pictures of her children and her elderly neighbor. It was a fun time! Her kids were more than willing to be hand models, and it was fun getting to interact with them all. Especially because as a student, I am rarely around kids and the elderly. That evening, I went to a social event called "Friends and Floats" on campus and talked with a variety of people, but didn't really make any new friends. It was fun though!

I had a great Friday because my three-hour 8am class was cancelled! Also, I was able to edit Miranda's video to post. While it almost took me an hour and a half, it turned out great and I'm super happy about it. I had the best evening ever! So, I went ice skating with my friend Kathy and her younger sister. It was super crowded and we didn't have much skate time, but I got to interact and talk to so many people. It was awesome! I was so giddy and energetic that I stayed up talking with my roommate until 11:40pm! Wow, so unlike me!

Saturday was booked! I filmed more people for my YouTube channel this morning! Two peeps from my work. I checked out equipment from the library, so I had a prety legit setup! I went to work, the temple, and then with Whitney to her stake dance (which was lame, so I left early) and then to bed. That was literally my whole day. Oh, and I finished writing my essay.

I taught Sunday School and felt so underprepared. The only thing I knew I should do was to show a slide show of pictures of Christ (I found quite a few that I'd never seen before) and play music while the class pondered about Jesus Christ. Everyone loved the lesson, for which I am so grateful. I am constantly being reminded that God will help me in the moment I need it, not necessarily days or hours before. It all worked out! Also, Isaac helped film me teaching the Plan of Salvation, which is the video I want to post next Sunday. He also told me that I needed to work on my flirting with boys... (insert laughing-crying face here). We had Come, Follow Me at our upstairs neighbor's apartment, which was really good, and then my friend Kathy came over to be videoed. That evening, Kathrine invited me to play a game with her, and it was super fun (also, I won!) and sweet of her! Also, Katie let me eat some of her dinner because mine didn't cook in time. #blessed

I felt God showing me that I do have amazing friends here this week. I have people who love me and look up to me. I've also been blessed with opportunities to meet new people and hold genuine conversations with complete strangers. I am grateful that God is answering my prayers and helping me grow as a person.

Much love,
Emily Burnham

Author for Intuition!

4 November - 10 November 2019

This was a great week! I found out such good news and have been busy doing productive things. Well, trying to! 

Monday

We had a combined FHE to celebrate the Day of the Dead. We had chips, salsa, and guac at the church and watched the movie Coco. It was so fun! On my way home, I felt prompted to stop by and say "hi" to Whitney. I didn't realize she had people over for FHE, but she was glad I stopped by because she had a picture to give me. She said in Sunday School they were asked to draw someone who is an amazing example to them, and she drew me! It made me feel so good and loved.

Tuesday

Work was super interesting. A small group of the actors are pulled aside that week and don't have lessons. Instead, we attend "boot camp." We played two truths and a lie to start off, and then talked about different things. The teacher had to leave early because she had class, so she left us with an activity to finish where we created a lesson plan, then swapped with the person next to us and taught them the lesson they had written. I was looking forward to it, but the girl I got paired up with made it one of the worst experiences I've had in a looonnnggg time. She got very defensive because I "already knew" everything she was trying to teach me and she felt frustrated. Then when it was time to switch and I was going to teach her, she closed off herself to me and was making it difficult. The Spirit was not there. After about three minutes of this, she finally broke her wall and opened up about why she was feeling that way and said it was intimidating that I knew so much and started preaching at me and getting super defensive and asking me intrusive questions. I had a lot I could have said to her, but I knew they would offend her, so it was emotionally exhausting to try to follow the Spirit to know what to say and how to react... for the next hour that we kept talking. She wouldn't let it go until she thought "it" was resolved. Ugh. So I was drained for the whole rest of the evening and hope I am never like that ever. And if I have been, I sincerely apologize. So sincerely.

The best thing also happened today! The giant research paper I wrote last semester got accepted into BYU's undergraduate psychology journal, Intuition! I'm going to be a published author! And it will look soooo good on my graduate school application! Wow, that makes me soooo excited!!!

Wednesday

Y'all. I made an appointment to meet with a guy who apparently cures food allergies. I heard about him from a couple in my mission. The guy lives in St. George, and a senior missionary couple I love just got back from their mission, and they live in St. George. I was able to plan a weekend trip to stay with them and visit the doctor's office. They live twelve minutes from the place! What a cool blessing! I hope everything works out so my stomach can stop hating me. 

Thursday

What a solid day. At work, we were given one to two hours to go to the new building at the MTC where they have giant murals throughout the building (twelve total) and find one that spoke to us. I saw this one of Moses parting the red sea and was immediately overcome with the Spirit. God truly does accomplish the impossible through us. We might feel insignificant--Moses vocally expressed his insecurities--and yet God uses imperfect people to accomplish miracles. So many of the murals spoke to me. I was able to contemplate my standing before God and feel that He knows I am trying and is proud of my efforts. That evening, I went with Miranda and a sister from the ward we minister to, Andrea, to eat fries at The Wall and then to a movie called The Price of Free. It was a very emotional movie about child slavery, but really cool to be informed about and inspired in knowing more ways to help others.

Friday

I need to quit my early morning job on Fridays. It's just so hard because I love my boss and the people there, and I wouldn't get to be part of their lives if I quit! I went to my 8am class and had a fun time painting a Moon Jelly (type of jellyfish). That class has made me so artsy. Plus my teacher told me I can come over to her place to take pictures for my project, since all my friends have flaked out on me! I went to a training for my TA job and worked on my essay for the rest of the night. Since I'm such a genius (read this with a sarcastic tone), I wrote 7.5 pages for my 4-5 page paper and then had to worry about condensing it.

Saturday

What a day! Y'all, I can see myself improving in trusting God. I woke up, ate breakfast, spent 1.5 hours on homework, then rushed to get ready to attend the temple. I needed to make the 11:20 session so I could make it to work at the MTC on time. I got into the session, but I was in the very back row and was worried it would take too long and I'd be late. I was stressing and not feeling the Spirit, but then decided to trust God. He's a God of miracles and has promised all things will work together for our good. I put aside my worries (eventually. It was still a struggle) and enjoyed the session. By the time I was done with the session, it was only 1:05, so I plenty of time to change and make it to work by 1:30! God is the best! And I love the temple. I heard a super cool story from my supervisor at work and asked her to be on my YouTube channel, to which she happily agreed! Yay!

Sunday

I had a great Sunday. The talks in sacrament meeting were awesome, and we had an emotional relief society lesson about weaknesses and challenges we are going through. It made me realize why I feel so lonely, and why so many people of my age group feel so lonely. I am missing love. I have been away from family so long that I forget what it is like to love someone so unconditionally and to feel that kind of love back. You love your friends, but you naturally have a higher and holier love for your family. Like, even when they bug you and hurt you and annoy you, you still love them. I don't feel loved deeply and cared about as much as I want or need, because my friends are busy with school too. They have other obligations and family members. It made me realize how excited I am to be with my family again and to one day have a family of my own. It also helped me not to feel so alone or like I was a bad person for not feeling loved or cared about. Family is so special. I wasn't able to post a video today for my YouTube channel because we ran out of time to film it, and the video that was filmed wasn't edited enough to be put up just yet. Stay tuned in because there are some amazing experiences that are going to be shared in the following months!

Love, 

Emily Burnham

Trip to the ER

28 October - 3 November 2019

What better way to add excitement to your week than by taking a trip to the emergency room? Completely unexpected, but I passed out and felt like I was going to die. I didn't, though! And I'm doing much, much better. I am grateful for my amazing roommates who jumped straight out of bed to drive me to the hospital and then wait there with me for 3 hours! So blessed and grateful for the guys in my ward who were awoken by my roommate's phone call, asking if they could come down to give me a blessing. And I'm so grateful for that blessing. I felt so much love and reassurance from my Heavenly Father. Well, now that the most exiting part of my week has been explained, I guess I'll start from the beginning of the week :)

Monday

We got to eat dinner at Bishop's house with another home evening group. Bishop added way too much hot sauce to my chili that I accidentally choked on it and water came out my nose when I tried to wash it down... haha, fortunately nobody saw me!

Tuesday

I went to institute! Yay, I'm keeping my promise to God that I would go. We got to talk about the mothers of the Stripling Warriors, and I realized that many of them who lost their husbands went through such hard trials, but they remained faithful and their children got to see first-hand their amazing strength and faith, which enabled them to develop strong faith of their own.

Wednesday

The ward Relief Society Halloween party was super fun! We made up candy bags to distribute to the men in our ward. I made lots of cute ghost suckers and wrote Halloween pick-up lines on the bags. My favorite two were, "I don't have a costume... Can I go as your girlfriend?" and "You look like such a treat, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me."

Thursday

Happy Halloween! I didn't do any homework today, and it was glorious! I got to meet with missionaries, and I felt God planting concerns within me that I never would have thought of on my own so that I could better connect with and help the missionaries I met with this week. That evening, we had a group of friends get together to go to a haunted house. They guy I'd asked to go as my date had other plans (and I don't think he even realized I was asking him on a date because my wording was too casual) and so I asked my friend Vincent from work if he wanted to come with us. It turned out to be so fun! Then we had hot cocoa afterwards :) This Halloween was a fun one because of that! AND, let it be made known that I did NOT even get scared! Which surprised me. Miranda got super freaked out, and even my friend Vincent reminded me of Shaggy from Scooby Doo! Haha :)

Friday

Art class this morning was fun because we got to make a puppet head out of clay. I made a chicken! After class, I went home and got ready to head over to work at the Harman building, where I spent three hours grading papers. Blah. It's good money though. I worked on my quiz and test all evening before hitting the hay.

Saturday

I was a little off on my lessons at work today, but I think I still did a good job. I am finding more job satisfaction, especially as I have felt the Lord guiding me with what to say to help these missionaries. I had a pair of elders who were teaching me...  rather, talking at me. After 20 minutes of them throwing scriptures and doctrine at me, I told them, "It's amazing that y'all know so much about your church, but I don't want to waste y'alls time because that's not what I'm here for; I thought you were here to help me with my questions and concerns. What are you doing here if it's not to help me?" It sounded way better than that because it was led by the Spirit and definitely took them aback and humbled them. Things got a lot more sincere and better after that. After work, I went to the temple session and was so happy to see that the men doubled the amount of women in the session. Usually it is always the opposite of that.

Sunday

Because I was at the hospital all morning, we were able to have some guys in the ward bring over some sacrament to bless for us. It was so nice to have them do it right in our living room, just for the three of us. It made me feel very special and honored. I am grateful for my Savior and my opportunity to renew the promises I made with Him each week. I am also grateful for the people who have served me through my afflictions. Like Kathrine giving me some of the dinner she made. I also made the cutest ring holders for my engaged friends! So proud of them! Today as I studied in Joseph Smith History, the account of God and Jesus appearing to Joseph Smith felt so real. I could almost see them and feel how Joseph must have felt. I know they appeared to him because I feel it deep inside. I know that our God is aware of us personally. He desires to bless us simply because He loves us so much!

It was a hard week emotionally for me (and physically) but I'm just amazed at how I am learning to enjoy every moment life has to offer me.

Love,

Emily Burnham