Happy 4th of July

Congratulations to Tory and Elise!! The beautiful couple. Thank you to everyone who emailed me this week with pictures! SO GORGEOUS. It ALMOST felt like I was there :) Also, Congratulations to Sister Adams who got married this last week too! Members showed me pictures here, and she looked absolutely beautiful! Miss you guys! 

Knowing that they both got married in the temple just makes me so happy too. It reflects me back to August 2014 when my best friend, Julie Anne "Moose-man" (555 it even rhymes...), got married in the Portland Temple. It's insane to think its almost been a year since then. But I still remember the feeling I had as I sat in the Sealing Room and watched her and Christian be sealed for time and all eternity. THAT is what it's all about. But don't worry, I'm not marriage trunky yet.... ;) I just feel so much loves!! I love all the love that's going on right now! In the next couple days, President and Sister Senior will be flying home, and President and Sister Johnson will be arriving. The love and respect I have for President and Sister Senior will be everlasting. Seriously though. They will never fully understand the impact they have had on my life. Which goes for all the missionaries that have had the chance to serve with him over these last 3 years. He has left an incredible mark on Thailand, and in the lives of his missionaries. And of course we welcome President Johnson and his wife as well! I am so excited to get to know them. We are going to Khon Kaen on Thursday for a short meet and greet. I am excited to see how this transition goes! I am lucky that this transition comes in almost the exact middle of my mission. These next 9 months with President Johnson are going to be LEGENDARY (That one's for you John.....555). 

This week has been incredible! So on Saturday Sister Mint got baptized! :) She is 19 years old, and just the most put together classy 19 year old I have ever met. She's just so down to earth and real, and I love her so much! The miracle part about her is that this last Sunday was the first time we had ever met and had a lesson with her since she just recently got back from Ubon. She lives with her extended family who are strong members here in Sisaket. I asked her how she was not baptized yet since she told me she has been going to church since she was a little kid. She didn't know but said she wanted to be baptized. So I told her that this coming Saturday she could get baptized if we just met everyday this week to teach her all the lessons. She agreed, and so this past week we have been going over to her house everyday and teaching her. Then Friday she interviewed, Saturday her Uncle got to baptize her, and Sunday she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Seriously the most smooth transition I have ever seen. And watching her face during all of it was just perfect. She is a pretty shy soft spoken girl, but her face was just lit up. She could not stop smiling! Which made me not be able to stop smiling! Everyone was just so happy, and you could just feel the love! (Is it bad if like a thousands songs just popped into my head after writing that...555) Anyways....this week is just happy!! :) Sister Sihabut is just perfect. Honestly. She is literally perfect. I have learned so much from her already and just hope that next week I don't move!! Transfers week again?!? So weird.

Random fact for the week: Me and Sister Ong nerdily figured out that the chances of a Sister Missionary getting called to Thailand is .05%. I am 1 of 43 Sister Missionaries here in Thailand right now, and there are currently about 85000 missionary out in 406 different missions. Needless to say, I think I am supposed to be here.

Love you all so much! Hope everyone has a Happy Fourth of July!! :)

Sister Burbank

Thailand: Where rabbits wear clothes and chickens fight.

Seriously....I love this country.

 Sister Sihabut is perfectly cute as always. 

LOVE HER.

 This was last Monday.  I literally look like death because I was so sick that day! 555

View outside the church.  SO BEAUTIFUL.

BAPTISM!! :)

I love her!

Sister Mint :)

 Sister Mint and her Uncle

 Teaching แม่สี except she only speaks Issan. So essentially I was pretty mute during that lesson. BUT I learned alot of Issan. So that was good 555

First two things she said to me:

1. Do you have a boyfriend?

2. Don't get married too fast when you get home.

5555

She was hilarious!! :) I LOVE OLD PEOPLE SO MUCH!!! 555

Happy Fathers Day from Thailand

I love you Dad!! Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. 

This week has felt crazy long. On Thursday, we woke up at 5am to go to the bus station to pick up our companions!! So yes, they are finally back from the Philippines. Which means training for me finally started on Thursday. For those of you who don't remember, I am training Sister Sihabut! She is khon Laos, but moved to Bangkok about 10 years ago. So she speaks Thai SO WELL. Everyone is impressed with how well she speaks Thai. Everyone just thinks she is the cutest person alive because she speaks so smooth. I love when she speaks Laos too. It's just beautiful! I don't know how else to describe it. Hopefully she will rub off on me, so I can actually learn how to speak this language. 555 She is also 27 years old, and has only been a member for just under 2 years. So in reality she is going to be the one training me!! 555 I keep telling her that, and she just keeps saying "No, no, no, not true!" But it definitely is true. She is already a really boss missionary. I swear she wrote Preach My Gospel, because she already does everything it tells us to do instinctively. She has such a strong testimony and she knows how to give it. It is so incredible to watch her teach. 

Just this last week we went and visited an LA after church. Her name is แม่ อ้อย and she has been a member for at least the last 13 years. She is in her 60s and lives with a lot of her grandchildren. She hasn't had missionaries visit her in forever, because none of us knew where she lived or even who she was, but just this last Sunday, a member came up to us that has just recently moved back into the Ward asking if we would go with her to visit. We obviously said yes, and followed her on our bikes. When we first got to her house she lovingly invited us in and we began to just start talking about her life. We quickly realized how much she was really struggling. Her husband had just recently died, and her health was failing. She felt alone and hopeless and just looked as if she had lost motivation in life. I looked into the eyes of this amazing women, and just felt so much love for her. We asked to share a quick message with her and she accepted but expressed how she had forgotten how to pray and hasn't prayed in years. She asked if Sister Sihabut would pray. Afterwards, Sister Sihabut shared a scripture from Ether 12:27 about how God gives us weaknesses for our benefit. So that through Him, one day they will be made strengths. It was so inspired and afterwards I reminded her how to pray. Then I asked her if she would pray for us before we left. She resisted at first, but then accepted. I watched as this beautiful child of God closed her eyes, folded her arms, and for the first time in YEARS, prayed to her Father in Heaven. She hadn't even finished addressing her Father before her eyes welled with tears, and she began to cry. In that moment, I felt the Spirit so strongly that I cannot deny it. She offered the most beautiful prayer that I have ever heard and closed in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. I opened my eyes and not one person in the room had a dry eye. She proceeded to hug us before we left, and I can't remember a time where I've felt that much love from someone in just one hug. And from someone I had just recently met. I left her house with a renewed perspective of just how much love God has for His children. It felt so good.

I feel so blessed to have a Father in Heaven that loves me enough to give me an earthly father to care and watch over me. Who taught me how to pray since birth so that I would always have someone to turn too when he wasn't there. Many times in my life I have taken for granted that amazing gift of having parents, I don't think they fully realize just how eternally grateful I really am for them. Or even just how much I love them. 

I think going on a mission makes you realize just how much you really do love your family, and just how much you actually do really want to be with them forever. How lucky are we that we know we can? Just like the primary song says,

"Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Fathers plan. I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can. The Lord has shown me how I can."

Who wouldn't want to believe, and hope in that? 

I have witnessed the power of God first had in the lives of these people in Thailand, and I am so excited for the day that the temple will be built so that they can finally receive the fullness of blessings God has to offer them. Many of the members here have been to the temple already, but SO MANY MORE haven't had the chance. Including แม่อ้อย. I just can't express what this temple announcement means to me and to the people here! 

I love you all! I love my Savior. I love my Father in Heaven. And I love WADE! 

Wade Dean Burbank. The best Father a girl could ask for. And since I've already gotten into singing primary songs today, might as well sing another. 

"I'm so glad when daddy comes home,

Glad as I can be;

Clap my hands and shout for joy,

Then climb upon his knee,

Put my arms around his neck,

Hug him tight like this,

Pat his cheeks, then give him what?

A great big [FISH]."

Love always.

Sister Burbank

So it's official!! The first stake in the Issan in Thailand has been established!! And now I am no longer serving is the Sisaket Branch, but the Sisaket WARD!!

So it's official!! The first stake in the Issan in Thailand has been established!! And now I am no longer serving is the Sisaket Branch, but the Sisaket WARD!! I think the hardest switch is going to be trying to remember to call our branch president, BISHOP, instead of president. 555+ Yes, Brother Somsak is still our president or bishop I guess now. Which is great. I love that family so much. 

This week was so full of emotions as I predicted. So we traveled to Ubon early Friday morning, and had our LAST zone conference with President Senior. It was so weird to think that I won't be seeing him again until next year. But my exit interview with him was really good. It was a very spiritual experience for the both of us. We both got pretty emotional just reflecting and talking about both of our futures. It was really cool. I am never going to forget him or Sister Senior. They have served INCREDIBLE missions.

After that we had an Ice Cream social with Elder and Sister Gong!! The Area Seventy of Asia. He is SO cool. Seriously. He has such a good disposition about him. I honestly just feel like famous to have gotten to hang out with all these people. So Hi-So. 5555 

Then Saturday came around and I saw Sister Noi and President Wisan again. I love them. And I told President Wisan that he better not be getting released when the new president comes in!! He just laughed. 555+ They are such a great family. They gave us mangos and sticky rice too. 555 So good as always! 

Then Sunday came around and we have the meeting!! Got to sing in the choir which was a huge bonus because it meant I could sit close to the stand were President Senior, and President Gong sat. It was just a really good meeting. I am so impressed with all the effort that goes into these things. Then we had Sister ก้อย's baptism!! I love her! (P.s. No mom, Sister Brown is still in Ubon, not Sisaket, we just saw her this weekend. 555) We get our companions this Wednesday!!!! They are coming back from the MTC. I am so excited! Sister Ong and I are both training. And President Senior joked that the Sisaket house is going to be a mini MTC for the next little while. 555 Everything this week has been so crazy!! It was so nice to be able to catch up with all the people I haven't seen in a while. Like Sister Alley. I love that women! 

I am honestly just so blessed!!! I hope everyone has a great week this week. Thank you for all the prayers! 

Love.

Sister Burbank

Random wedding of people I do not know.

Sisaket Ward (not a branch any more)

We have had so much work this week... and Happy Birthday to friends

First things first! 

Happy Birthday to Julie (June 3rd), my companion Sister Ong (June 8th) and Sister Grover, RINA, (June 7th). Hope you all had great birthdays!! :) 

This week was really good. I was telling President how I feel like I have reached a new level of consecration this week. It was like a level up, a checkpoint.

I felt like as I look back on the missionary and person I used to be, I can see a difference. And 

We have had so much work this week. Sister โรส got the Holy Ghost this last Sunday, and I honestly just felt so good experiencing that. 

I lead the music in church every week now because Sister Ong plays piano better than me, but I honestly love it. I get to sit on the stand and look out at all the members every week and just smile at them individually when they accidentally make eye contact with me. I can truly say I love these people here. And not just a surface, acquaintance kind of love. This is real deep love that can only come from charity, the pure love of Christ. Because that is where this love ultimately stems from. My undying faith and love of my Savior, Jesus Christ. As I have served these last 8 months, I have developed a form of charity for people that I didn't even know was possible. 

I feel like I have this connection to the Spirit that wasn't there before. Now I can literally read any quote and just really FEEL of it's truth. Not just think to myself "Oh that was a nice quote." Instead, I feel like I am experiencing the feelings the Apostle or Prophet experienced as he said it. And THAT is only possible though the power of the Holy Ghost, which I have been working SO hard these last 8 months to get on this kind of spiritual level. It's truly incredible. I have gained an even greater and deeper respect for the apostles and prophets of this church. And I honestly can say I LOVE them. The truths they speak are SO TRUE. Just so true. I could just spend hours thinking about a simple quote. It feels so enlightening when I do it! It's like I can't get enough and I am filled with this warmth and strength and happiness that can't ever be accurately explained. It is as if all the pain in my body both mentally and physically is just taken away. 

This week was just a lot of fun. Sister Ong and I get along so well, and we are both just preparing the area for training. We have so much work to do since we have to look after two area books together until our companions get here to help us. It's actually just so great though. We both have phones too, so we joke that we are the Sister AP's here in Sisaket. 555 

We have been teaching a lot this week, and just been biking all over the place to all these appointments. It's great. 

Elder Johnson and Wertz are great too. 

We are going to Ubon this week for the meeting where they make the first stake in the Issan!! And I get to be apart of it! :) I am singing in the choir that Sisaket made to preform at the meeting/stake conference too. They are all so cute.

I am so excited to go! I will be in Ubon, Friday-Sunday. So like when I went to Roi-Et a few months ago. It's like a 3 day thing again.

I can't wait! I'll get to see Sister Alley again too! And Sister Remington and Sister Tauteoli! They are all in the Roi-et Zone, and both the Roi-Et zone and Ubon zone are going to this conference. (P.S. I am in the Ubon zone if you didn't know) It will also be the last time I see President Senior and Sister Senior. So this is just going to be a super emotional week. 555

Hope you all are doing great.

Love you all! 

Sister Burbank

My MTC teacher got married and came to Thailand on their honeymoon.

Thai fruits and food

New Companion. Sister Rose got Baptized.

Baptism!!!!!!!

Sister Rose got baptized yesterday after we have been teaching her for 3 months! AHHH I Love her so much,.

I am out of time to email, because I was helping my companion set up her email most of the time. So I am just quickly sending pictures. We moved houses today as well so I am not going to send a big email. But hopefully with the explanation of these pictures, it will be enough to know how my week went. I am so happy! 

Also, we are going to bangkok again on wednesday. SO MUCH TRAVELING. I literally have traveled to bangkok every week it feels like since march. So many bus rides.....blah. 555

I never get sleep. The life of a missionary though!  

Swensen's with the Sisters! 

So we got back to Sisaket on Friday morning, and that is when we found out that my companion got accidentally sent to Chiang Mai (The slides at transfers were messed up, and president was just going to leave it, but then he called us Friday night and said that the spirit wont stop bugging him that I am supposed to be with S. Sihbut). Which meant we had to goto Khon Kaen that Friday night to pick her up Saturday morning, and send Sister Ong's companion (the khon Thai in the picture, Sister Sattatip) to Chiang Mai.

So now Sister Ong is waiting for her companion. And I am with Sister Sihbut สีหาบุตร.

I am so excited! Originally I was the one Sister in the companionship that was going to wait for her companion but now I am the one training right away. Crazy.

Sending Sister Sattatip off in the airport in Khon Kaen.

 Me, Sister Ong, Sister Sihbut

Rina being a crazy boss carrying her bike all the way down the street. On our way to transfers!