The 4th & Culture Night

 3 July - 14 July 2024

Hola, mi familia! 안녕, 가족이!

Just dropping a few pictures and updates on the last two weeks! What isn't mentioned below is that I am getting a lot of new clients, so my schedule is filling up, which feels like a huge blessing! I am also feeling more competent in my work and seeing more positive outcomes, as well as overcoming my impostor syndrome that was with me for so many months. Also, my dad cut his hand open on a grinder and ended up at urgent care and the hospital on the night of my FHE Korean presentation. It is healing up quite nicely, but it caused him a lot of pain. The culture night for FHE was fun! I think I stayed there for two hours! There were presentations on Brazil, Bolivia, the Baltics, etc. I think people really enjoyed the effort I put into my presentation. Some people enjoyed learning about the Korean alphabet, though most just looked intimidated by it. Some enjoyed using chopsticks while some didn't seem to care to try. But oh well, you can't win over everyone! Even though they should all love Korean culture!!!!! Hahaha. It was still a fun time. I'm being more social at church, trying to get to know more people and help them feel welcomed and loved. I am meeting more therapists and getting more referrals. I feel more supported. Things are going well. My stomach did hurt a few days this week, and I really am going to try to eat healthier and cut out sugar. I really need to do it! So, that's all you really need to know about the past two weeks, besides the stuff I wrote below to accompany each picture:

Fourth of July pizza party at Letti's house! Spent the night helping people make their pizzas and talking with new people!

Prepped my presentation on Korea for FHE culture night!

Sunday night family dinner! Sent this pic to Lu to make her jealous... ;)

Presented on South Korea! Got to teach some people a bit about the language as well as how to use chopsticks. I don't think anyone was as obsessed as me or really understood my obsession, but it's okay.

Went to Emily Gillette's bridal shower and we got to make flower boquets.

Whitney sent me a Scotland postcard! She went to Europe for 15 days!

Selfie with Sean at the lunch-in. AKA his house where he's currently living.

This was taken at the lunch-in after Cody and Carly's sealing in the temple! Lol, Gracelyn isn't even looking, haha.

Lucy did a fabulous job of cheering me up on a sad day. She is so cute and funny. I sure love her a million and am eternally grateful I get to call her my sister.

My text conversations with Hanna have pretty much become all in Korean now! It's been so helpful to be able to learn from a native speaker! It makes me wonder just how quickly I could pick it up if I lived in Korea for a time, fully-immersed!

Much love,

Emily Burnham

World's Largest Snickers & Korean Souvenirs

 24 June - 2 July 2024

What is holding me back from accomplishing my dreams? My own self-doubt, insecurity, exhaustion, and anxiety. When my mental, emotional, and physical health is balanced and stable, I am able to go off and explore. Try new things. Make things happen. I'm going to try to write a little more often in my blog, because I definitely noticed a difference in my wellbeing when I cut back how frequently I was writing and reflecting over my life. To be fair, things have been getting better, and one of many reasons is because I've started journaling more in my hardcopy notebooks. But I really do like keeping track of things here as well because then I get to add all the pictures and those are so fun to look back on. Journaling helps me keep things in perspective, express and feel gratitude, notice blessings, etc. Plus, I am a huge verbal processor, which means I need to let it out and make sense of what's going on inside externally, whether that is through talking my mom's ear off (sorry mom, love you!) or writing about it. 

Anyways, this past week was pretty epic! I'll share photos and talk more about the week from each photo. 

I picked up mom and dad from the airport after they spent a week in Utah visiting Lucy, and withing 20 minutes of being home, they were each doing what they do best ;). I sent this "stalker" photo to Lucy and it made her crack up!

Hanna arrived back from her trip to Korea and brought back souvenirs! She was gone for an entire month. She got me a keychain of a cute Korean couple, which I told her was a keychain of me and my Korean husband, which made her laugh. I love how easy it is to make her laugh, and when it really strikes her has funny, she will lightly hit me as she laughs, so yes, I will get swatted for my jokes :). She finds me so cute, and I also just find her adorable. Her sister also sent back a limited edition BTS book as a gift for me, which made me really happy. Hanna took a video of me with it to send to her sister and I spoke a few basic Korean words. I absolutely love how my interest and genuine love for other cultures has brought so many incredible connections and bonds into my life. God is good!

We made snickers at the cooking class Thursday night at the church. It's part of the Gather Place series. We have a chef in the stake who is teaching them. However, the caramel did not set up, so we ended up rolling it into a log and dumping chocolate on top. So instead of making little snickers bars, we made the world's largest snickers!!! The funniest part was that they had bought hole and half peanuts, and I figured it'd be best if they were crushed, so I self-appointed myself the job and got the hammer out of the toolkit in my car and crushed up the nuts, haha!

I've been working on being more social, trying to talk to more people, and I have been spending time taking care of myself and healing, so I am feeling incredibly grateful and blessed.

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Sedona Hike and Lip Synch Battle

 29 April - 23 June 2024

It's been a hot minute since I wrote, so I'll catch you up briefly on any noteworthy events and then on my overall thoughts about how life has been going.

I signed up for the ward lip synch battle and got Courtlyn and Theres on board with me, so I spent a LOT of time practicing for that! Like easily 10 hours. I'd practice at the gym in front of the mirror. Since our gym closed down, my mom and I have not found a satisfactory solution. We tried a free 5-day pass out Mountain Side. We even signed up to try EoS, which sucked. Not only was it super crowded and smelly, but the "$1 trial" was a scam and they charged mom $27 dollars (more than that, including the yearly fee, but mom called and got them to take that off at least). But we were definitely misinformed and mom was so miffed. So, we do NOT like EoS. Now we even feel more grateful for our membership at LA Fitness, even if it is a bit more of a drive. I also went on the ward hike to Sedona with Therese, Alyssa, and Rachel. We listened to my jams on the way up, a mix of gospel tunes and k-pop/ballads. It was beautiful, and I really enjoyed talking with my friends and building deeper connections. I also had my friends Courtlyn, Delaney, and Therese over for Sunday dinner with my family and we played games on Cinco De Mayo. My YouTube channel is still going, but I'm taking a bit of a break by just posting shorts/memes instead of long videos because those were kind of burning me out and didn't seem super popular anyways, so I figured I needed to regroup and reassess what is really meaningful to me and worth it to put out there. The ward lip synch battle was such a fun evening! Delaney came to support us, and we ended up winning first place! We spent lots of time practicing together in the week leading up to it. That night, we were practically flawless! I felt so loved and so included and so happy. My heart was happy and light. Also, I got to take home the trophy! Gracelyn is super cute and has taken to calling me "Choo Choo" (thanks to my dad, really). I attended Jessica Hughes and Garrett Baker's wedding ceremony, then helped set up for the reception, then attended the reception! We had a fun FHE "Where's Waldo?" night at SanTan Mall and the bishopric did such a wonderful job of dressing up. My studying and practicing of Korean is still going well (slowly but surely, I'd say. It's hard when you don't really have people to practice it with/aren't submerged in it). I went to a stake water day and hung with my friends. The pop-up water slide was super fun, and for the dunk tank, I knocked down the stake president on my third try! Everyone was really impressed! My gym friend Hanna is off in Korea, and she's been sending us pictures of things, which was been super fun! I also attended my friend Savannah Hunter's wedding. I've been trying to treat myself in little ways, like I got a bunch of Korean food/meals to try, and they were actually so good! I made dinner with Therese for the sister missionaries yesterday, which was a good time, but I am sad she will be leaving next Saturday, moving to Idaho, but it'll be exciting for her! So of course I made her and Courtlyn take Sunday photos with me :). I also made Sunday dinner for Grandpa Jim and me since my parents were out of town this past week in Utah, visiting Lucy.

Working as a therapist has been much harder than I ever imagined. There have been a handful of times where I've really wanted to quit. I can't even describe the extent of my challenges, but things are getting better, and I'm getting additional support and help. Plus, I think sometimes you just have to struggle in order to fully appreciate or learn something. If there is one thing that I know to be true (even though it's a hard truth), it's that pain and suffering bring perspective and growth and joy. I'm hanging in there and even experiencing joy so I'm just trying to continue to surround myself with good things and voices, spending more time in the gospel and in the things that TRULY matter most in life and in the eternities. 

Much love,

Emily Burnham

My mom learning the BTS "Permission to Dance" moves ;)

Sedona hike!

Cinco De Mayo dinner

Mother's Day Dinner

BTS Girls!

Me and Sis Davis!

The Waldo Crew. Love these people!

Stake Water Day

Gimpab and Tteokbokki!

Sunday Pics

Sunday Dinner!

OneUs K-Pop Concert

 1 April 2024 - 28 April 2024

Hello there! It's kind of weird writing only once a month now. Let me start with the biggest thing that happened this month, which was me attending the OneUs K-pop concert! So in preparation, I went shopping at DI to find an outfit. Whitney came down for a few days from Utah, and we got to hang out and go shopping. She helped pick out the skirt, which went great with the rest of the outfit. I went with Courtlyn (from my YSA ward) and her friend Elise. They got to visit Korea last year together. It was my first Kpop concert and was a fun experience, though I am glad I brought earplugs because toward the middle/end, my right ear started hurting, so I was able to add a little barrier of protection but could still hear well. A year ago, my right ear drum got burst from girls screaming loudly, so now I'm very cautious and protective of my ear! It was fun and a bit surreal to see the group live. They knew a few English phrases, but they spoke mostly Korean, and it was so cool because it sounds so similar to what I hear in K-dramas, and I was able to understand a few words here or there. They had a translator. The best part was feeling more connected and bonded to my friends I went with. I don't know that concerts are really my thing, but I'm always down for new experiences!

Early this month, I got to go out to dinner with my MFT friend Ashley, and we had a great time talking. I was able to share things and worries and concerns with her and it was so helpful for her to listen and reflect back to me, and I realized some things that were so helpful and relieving. I also got to go out to dinner with my coworker therapist Kari, and she spoke with me about different counseling options and places. Also, I attend a monthly EFT consult group, and I mentioned in the group that I was looking for a second site, and another lady there reached out with her information. I ended up interviewing with her and everything just fell into place. I didn't expect it to go so well or so easily, but everything just really clicked. The site I'll be working at is literally a 2 minute drive from my house, the building next door to my orthodontics place! They are taking really great care of me so far, and I'm excited to start getting to see lots of couples! Now I'll be at CLEAR Counseling 2.5 to 3 days a week, and then at this new place for 2 days, maybe building up to 3. 

After attending the concert, a girl on FaceBook reached out. We were in the same ward in Utah but didn't really know each other well, but were FB friends, but she moved down here 6 months ago and she was also at the concert that night, so we just started chatting a ton and became really great friends! I've gotten to hang out with her twice now, and it's fun to talk and obsess together! She's a great listener and has also taught me a lot about the K-world! We also met up at the stake Luau and hung that night, which I was grateful for because there were not many people there from my ward!

Also, my gym friend Hanna came over with her husband because he wanted to meet my dad and look around at the houses we built. While dad took him on a tour, Hanna spent the 2 hours helping me study Korean! The time really flew by, and I was able to share a Korean Book of Mormon with her! I shared that it was my favorite book, and I was wanting to learn how to read it in Korean, and I got her a copy too! It has prophets speaking in it and brings me closer to Jesus Christ. She seemed pleased and happy! Of course, we had to take pictures together with the Korean finger hearts! Later that evening, we went to Syndey Langford's wedding reception. 

I also had a prompting to stop by with a care package to my ministering sister Therese, because I knew she had been feeling poorly at church. I picked some citrus, got vitamins, gum, a note, some water bottles, then made a surprise drop-by. She was super happy, and they invited me in, and Courtlyn showed me her room (she got new decor) and then I talked with the two of them and convinced them to do the ward lip synch battle with me! And to go on the ward hike. Earlier in the day, mom had asked me if I wanted to go to her ward's volleyball that night at 9pm, which I turned down, thinking "why would she even ask me, she knows I wouldn't want to!" But then that night, Therese asked me about volleyball because she has missed playing, and I was able to pass on the info to her, and she went that night and played! So God orchestrated that whole thing with promptings. So cool! But during the visit, they both showed me the kpop dances they already knew, which was fun to watch, and then Courtlyn showed me pictures from her trip to Korea, which really made me excited to go! So cool! They both mentioned how that really made their day and was so fun. I am so grateful for promptings!

Well, those are the highlights from the month! I have been feeling better on my hormone support supplement, which has been so relieving. Thank goodness for getting checked up at the doctor, though it has cost quite a bit so far this year! Medical is so expensive!! But worth it if I actually feel better!

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Wedding photos finally arrived!

We still have leftover food from the wedding. We invited the Burnhams over for dinner and games!

My Kpop concert outfit fit the vibe perfectly!

Me with Courtlyn and Elise before heading over to the OneUs Kpop concert!

OneUs posted this photo on their account. A $100 to whoever finds me in the photo! HA kidding... I know vaguely where I'm seated and don't think I'm visible :( well, plus it's super blurry.

Gracelyn was not happy about be grabbing her for a quick photo. She just loves to run around outside.

My gym friend Hanna came over and we studied Korean for 2 hours, and I shared a Korean Book of Mormon with her!

Me and Val at Sydney Langford's wedding reception.

Me and my new friend Delaney at the multi-stake Luau event!