MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

Today we finished our mission.  We worked in the St. George Tabernacle this morning, my favorite place of the historic sites.  We are happy that we made it through the year without any huge calamities.  The Lord blessed us with health and strength.  We didn't miss one day.  That was a huge blessing because some of the other senior missionaries had issues like cancer, a broken foot, Parkinson's, etc.  It was wonderful to serve, and we are thankful for the opportunity we had to teach about Jesus and the restored gospel.  Also, when you serve a mission, you have increased love for others.  We instantly cared for all the members and non-members who came to our sites.

Elder Ballard came to our mission in January and talked to the missionaries.  He told us we need to to be better teachers, become great teachers.  He said we need to engage in conversation about who God is, who Christ is, and that the restoration is the message.

Since the St. George Temple Visitors' Center is closed, we have been trying to have  a few activities with the young sister missionaries, so they can socialize and enjoy a preparation day together.  For one of their morning training meetings we had it at our house in connection with a yummy breakfast. Scott made his legendary omelets, and I made waffles with real maple syrup, whipped cream and fruit.  I decorated the tables with a Valentine theme, and we gave them each a rose when they left.

Sister Parton from Australia, Sister McNaughton from Texas and Sis Meek from Idaho Falls, Idaho

Many of the sisters are from warm climates or places where it doesn't snow.  So we took them to Pine Valley which is 30 miles to the north for a day of playing in the snow.  First we visited the historic Pine Valley Chapel which was built in 1868 and was designed by Ebenezer Bryce, a Scottish shipbuilder.  Then we had lunch at a big cabin and let the sisters play in the snow.

                                                     Sister Meneses from Guatemala

The last few weeks we have had some visitors from home.  Scott, Nathan, and Liz all had birthdays in January so they brought their family and came down to see us.  It was really exciting around here with their festive decorations and great food.

 Three weeks ago the city of St. George put up some trail markers to the quarry where the pioneers cut out the red sandstone for the tabernacle, temple, and courthouse.  A few of us hiked to the place located by the Dixie Red Hills Golf Course.  It was fun to see some of the old tool marks in the sandstone.

 Last week was filled with goodbyes.  The senior couples had a goodbye party for us and the Fullers.  We received a quilt which included squares the couples made for it.  Then three days later we had a joint meeting with the seniors and the young missionaries so we could give some parting remarks and share our testimonies.  It was good.   It's hard to express the feelings we are having at the end of our mission.  We are sad to be leaving and happy we did it.  A part of our heart will remain in St. George.
We will always be thankful to our Savior Jesus Christ for his atoning sacrifice so that all who repent and believe in Him can be forgiven of their sins and be resurrected to live with our Heavenly Father and our families in a state of happiness and joy.

Merry Christmas ~ A Savior Is Born!

This could be the last post to our blog.  We only have about 7 weeks left as our release date is February 9.   Christmas has been in full swing since Thanksgiving.  Even before that I was in charge of decorating a tree in the visitors' center, so I had to get the ornaments, ribbon, little statues of Jesus, etc. ready.  We decorated it a week before Thanksgiving and helped make bows and hang wreaths and garland at the historic sites.  Starting on January 4, 2016, the visitors' center will be closed for eight weeks for renovation.  We will still be working and greeting people in the annex, but we won't be seeing much of the sister missionaries anymore.  They will spend a lot of their time in their assigned areas and wards.  I will miss them a lot.

Elder Burt in wreath at St. George Tabernacle

          "Why I Believe" tree that I decorated in the
                 St. George Temple Visitors' Center

"Why I Believe" t-shirts that we ordered and gave to everyone on the day we decorated the VC

   

Jacob Hamblin tree with roadrunner that Sher put on white background

Sister Orellana pointing to her country on the sister missionary tree

Two nativity sets from our display of nativities from all over the world

Display at the visitors' center where the Christmas video can be shown

We are so thankful that Jesus Christ was born to be our savior and redeemer.  Because of Him we can be resurrected, repent of our sins, and return to live with God and our families in heaven.

Cute Sarah holding the Christmas table toppers we handed out at the different locations

The St. George Temple lights were turned on the day after Thanksgiving.  We have had lots of visitors and families come to see the decorations.  On Monday night we had 500 people in the visitors' center and 1300 outside by the big nativity and walking around the grounds.  

It's been slow at the historic sites, but we have been busy at night with all the Christmas musical programs in the tabernacle put on by various choirs.   The Southern Utah Heritage Choir did four performances and was the most popular with 1200 attending Sunday night.  We will be singing in a choir with other missionaries for our program on December 20 with Elder Wade as the speaker.  

Three Months Left to Serve

It's hard to believe that we only have three more months down here to serve in the St. George Utah Visitors' Center Mission.  With all that is happening around here, it will go by fast!  October and November have been filled with exceptionally fun people who have participated at the St. George Tabernacle or at the visitors' center.  Scott was instrumental in getting some of these special guests, and I have been the photographer to capture the moments.  It's been great.

Jon Schmidt of the world famous "The Piano Guys" came and spoke and played in the tabernacle as part of our "Why I Believe" music and lecture series.  He was awesome.  We had people waiting outside to get in an hour or more early.  We set up extra chairs downstairs and up and stationed missionaries in different sections of the tabernacle to help with crowd control.  We had over a thousand people come, and I don't know how many couldn't get in.   Jon said good things and told how his mission president helped him decide to try music as a way to earn money.  He told of the spiritual influence his older sister had on him as a young man and helped him gain a testimony of Jesus Christ.  The next morning he came and talked to the young sister missionaries at the visitors' center as they couldn't attend at the tabernacle.  He was cute with them and of course played one song laying down on the piano bench.  He told how is own daughter was blessed by going on a mission.

Last week David Archuleta surprised the St. George missionaries at a zone conference by speaking and singing to them for an hour.    Only the leadership knew he was coming, so it was pretty fun to see him walk into the meeting  and see the response of the audience.   Prior to the meeting, he came to the visitors' center to meet Elder and Sis. Cleverly and have photos taken with him.  He is cute and has sparkling eyes.  He was down here to do some concerts at Tuachan.  The Church leaders have asked him to talk to missionaries when he travels as a church job.  He did an outstanding job of talking to the group and touched on a lot of things missionaries could really relate to.  He told some of his experiences on his mission in Chile.  Also, he talked a little about his mother's conversion to the Church.  When she was investigating, she finally decided to attend sacrament meeting with the elders on Sunday.  That Saturday night before,  she had a dream and heard angels singing.  The next day at church during the singing of one of the hymns, she starting crying.  The missionaries thought, oh no, we bring our investigator to church and she's upset and crying.  It turned out that the hymn was the same song she heard in her dream the night before, "Come, Come Ye Saints".  So David sang that song for us in English and Spanish.  The other song he sang was "I Believe in Christ".  It was great.  Then we took a group photo outside with the temple in the background.   

Sis. Hooson from England and I wearing the same colors to the St. George Temple Visitors' Center.

A cute Cottontail Rabbit sitting by our cotton plants and grape vines at the Jacob Hamblin Home. 

            

Miscellaneous Mission Moments

A lot has happened since I last posted.  I am in charge of our St. George Temple Visitors' Center Facebook page, so I am posting photos every week.  This month we are going to feature The Book of Mormon.  We also started our "Why I Believe" series of lectures and music that will run from September through April of next year.  Scott has been in charge of getting that going and publicized. Some of the fun people we have coming are David L. Beck, Sheri Dew, Elaine Dalton, Jon Schmidt, and the Durrants.  Janessa and Sherry helped us design a poster with our new logo that Elder Cleverly's son in law made.  Also, Wendy cut around a picture I took of Elder Bednar and his wife  and put it on a white background so that I could post it on Facebook.  It's a good thing my kids have skills.

Elder Bednar came to a stake conference, and he spoke to all the young missionaries in a special three hour question and answer session.  They were pretty excited about it.  At the Saturday night session of stake conference that we went to, he told us that we all need saving ordinances and that all we do in the church is to assist each other to receive the ordinances and covenants of the temple.  He also said that the world isn't going to get any better, and that's why we need to keep the Sabbath Day holy and prepare better to partake of the sacrament.  Then we will be able to remain unspotted from the world.  Our agency is to choose God and love and serve others. We can use the cleansing and strengthening power of the atonement.

A couple of weeks ago while we were working at the tabernacle, one of the facilities management men took me and Scott up into the attic.  Then Scott went up two metal ladders into the steeple where the clock works are.  The gears are in the first picture.  Also, Scott was able to go out on the little ledge and take a photo of the clock up close.  It was very fun.  I was waiting in the attic and didn't know they were going outside, or I would have run out to take a photo.

We have had miscellaneous interesting things happen at some of our sites.  At the Brigham Young Winter Home a large branch broke off the pecan tree and crashed down in the night.  Thank goodness no one was around.  Then at the tabernacle, a swarm of bees attached to a branch on one of the trees there.  Luckily they only stayed one day.  Then a couple of days later a small bat was found hanging upside down in the top corner of the back door of the tabernacle.  Meanwhile, the cotton at the Jacob Hamblin Home is growing great, and we like to show it to the people who have never seen cotton plants before.

Finally, today we went to the baptism of a young adult woman who Scott talked to in the annex.  She came in to get a Book of Mormon, and he put his e-mail address on a card that he put inside the book in case she had any questions.  It's a good thing he did because about a month later he got an e-mail from her asking for help getting in contact with the missionaries.  They had set up an appointment with her and didn't show up.  She didn't know what to do, and then she remembered she had Scott's

 e-mail in her Book of Mormon.  He contacted the sister missionaries at our visitors' center, and Sis. Parada went to see her.  It turned out that there was a misunderstanding with the elders on which day the appointment was.  Everything turned out great because the elders did teach her the lessons, and today she was baptized.  We went, and I met her for the first time.  It was fun to see the result of Scott's efforts.   One of the blessings of working in the visitors' center is that people come to you, but you rarely get to know what happens to them after they go home, so it's hard to see the fruits of your labor.  Today was the exception, and it was good.  

Elder Burt with Haley Shepard

Almost HALF WAY

August 9 is the half way date for our mission.  I'm excited because that means we have actually finished a six month mission and any more time is bonus even though our mission is for a year.
We have had three couples finish and leave us in the last 6 weeks.  It's hard to see them go not only because we love them but also because we haven't got replacements yet.  We are trying to hold down the fort!  Also, one of our couples who was with us in the MTC and is serving here got some surprising bad news this week.  Sister Fuller has stage four cancer that started in her lungs and has spread to other parts of her body.  They are trying to finish their mission, but we will have to see how the radiation goes.

Last week I went with my cousin Chris Abbott to Pine Valley.  Her ancestor, William Snow, settled Pine Valley and was the first bishop.  We took a tour of the cute Pine Valley Chapel, the oldest LDS chapel in continuous use.  It was built by in 1867 by Ebenezer Bryce, a Scottish shipbuilder.

William Snow was also the brother of Erastus Snow and one of the original pioneer settlers sent down to St. George to grow cotton in the Cotton Mission.

One of the fun things about our mission is my interaction with the young sister missionaries.   While Scott is in the annex, I am at the front desk answering the phone and supporting the missionaries as they greet and talk to people who come in.  I am also supposed to hug them and notice how they are doing.  These wonderful sister missionaries come from all over the world.  Right now we have some from Australia, England, Germany, Italy, Columbia, Mexico, Tahiti, France, and the US.  The last couple of weeks Sis. Lopez has needed my help.  The first week she told me she had been throwing up about twice a day for three days and wanted to know what she should do.  After talking about her symptoms, I advised her to drink lemon-lime Gatorade and Sprite and eat toast for breakfast.  Also, she got some saltine crackers.  Happily, she got better in a couple of days.  Then the next week, she came into the visitors' center distraught because she couldn't find her cell phone.  They had retraced the three places they had been so far.  She said, "Sister Burt, they just made me senior companion, and I lost our cell phone." I said, "That's easy to do."  Then she told me about the last time she had the phone.  I said, "Have you looked in your car?"  She said they had a few times.  I told her to give me the keys, and I would go look in her car.  They went back to their apartment, and in a few minutes I walked to their car and started looking.  I found the phone in the side pocket of the passenger side door!  Needless to say, they were pretty excited when I knocked on their door with the car keys and their phone.  I told them I was an experienced mother.   

                                          Sister Lopez and Sister Polatis

St. George Temple Visitor's Center

                                       

Tennessee Visitors and Hoags

This month we survived the hottest June on record.  It got up to 113 for several days in a row and cooled down to 83 at night.  Luckily, we have air-conditioning at all the places we serve in.  The visitors are pretty impressed with how cool it is in these old pioneer houses although the Brigham Young Winter Home had its air-conditioning go out twice.

                                                       James and grandpa as a shark

             

                                                             Kate at the splash pad

Also, Wendy visited us for 6 days, and we were able to go swimming and run through the splash pad downtown.  The kids loved it!  

Wendy, Kate, Ivy, and James came all the way from Tennessee to see us.  Amy, Em, Ty, Will, and Brocky came for three days to be with their cousins and visit.  We had lots of fun with everyone in between doing our duty as missionaries.  It was great having our family visit us at the different locations while we were working.  

                                                  Cousins at the Jacob Hamblin Home

                      Kate, Ivy, James in arbor at Brigham Young Winter Home

                                         Wendy with kids on St. George Temple stairs

                                                        Brocky, Will, Ivy, Kate

After Wendy and Amy left for home, Scott and I were assigned to go help at the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti for one night.  We had to work our 4 hour shift in St. George, then drive to Manti which took 3 1/2 to 4 hours, help at the Information Booth by the audience seating for 3 hours, and then watch the pageant which started at 9:30 p.m.  We stayed over night in the Barton's home in Manti, and they fed us breakfast in the morning.  Then we did a session in the Manti Temple at 8:30 a.m. and drove back to St. George.  

                                                             Mormon and Moroni

Next year will be the 50th anniversary of the Manti Pageant.  The play is about Joseph Smith, the pioneers, and some Book of Mormon scenes like Christ appearing to the Nephites.  It was good.  One  interesting thing is that we were sitting in the ASL section with monitors showing the narration in sign language.  The two main interpreters were Jenny and Chris Wakeland!  We thought that was cool.  

Being in the Manti Temple was awesome!  The pioneer craftsmanship is amazing.  In the World Room were Minerva Teichert murals that I had wanted to see for a long time.  Also, there is a 5 story circular staircase that we got to see.  

On July 4, we hosted a breakfast at our house for the senior missionary couples.  We had waffles with fruit and whipping cream, and Scott made his famous omelets.  Everyone loved it.  Then we worked at the Brigham Young Home for 5 hours and later watched the fireworks at a special location!