Emily's dear Grandma Bette leaves us...

          I feel really at peace.   What a blessing to know where she is and to have a firm knowledge of whats going on. Thanks for writing to me.


'DEATH IS NOT EXTINGUISHING THE LIGHT, BUT PUTTING OUT THE LAMP- BECAUSE THE DAWN HAS COME...

For the funeral:
What an absolute blessing to have had Bette as my grandmother.  I have innumberable happy experiences with her that I will cherish the rest of my life and her incredible influence is manifest in the life of my mother, my life, and hopefully the lives of my children.  It is a blessing to have had her as a huge part of my life and another blessing to know exactly where she is. I love you Bette, Bubba and the rest of the family.

Mom, I´m just glad that you have a testimony and knowledge of the Savior Jesus Christ. What a powerful thing- this knowledge.  I´m sure everyone around is consoling and loving and helping, but just know that I´m thinking about you and praying for you by name- that you can retain this confidence, faith, and hope.  It says in Moroni 7 that the great hope of our lives is that through the atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection that we will be raised to life eternal.  THAT is our hope.  THAT is my greatest hope for myself and for our family. THAT is the eternal truth that I will hold on to the rest of my life.

Mom, I love you and know that if you bear patiently and with faith the hard things and times that are sure to come, God will strengthen and bless you.  In Mosiah 24,  Ammulon has Alma and his people in captivity. They are forbidden to pray and their affliction grows too great.  God promises to help them.  Though their burdens are not taken away, they ARE aliviated so that the people can not feel them upon their backs and I think that their backs were strengthened as well.  I love that story and know its a true principle.

Love you all and wish I were there to help during this difficult time, but we all know where Bette is.  Like that guy in general conference said....¨Does anyone have a problem with the plan of salvation?¨ Because I don´t.  Not one bit.  Love you all.

Em


OUR FAMILY...Forever, for always and no matter what....

                                          

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day with Ashley's parents: John and Jill Peay!

Mike and baby Haven feelin' the love!

James loves Haven...

I love my Auntie!

Just chillin' with mom and dad poolside...

I'm my daddy's little girlfriend....

Lamest blog ever...

Well, I have pulgas again.

Hey fam and friends...I´m back in Rahue Alto where the dogs are even
nastier and you can´t see the next street over because the air is so
smokey from the fires we have to make to stay alive. I love it.
I am with the most HILARIOUS hick from Alabama (hick was a little
strong...lets say...chick!) named Hermana Kelley. We just die
laughing all day and she basically IS Ashley Peay Bourne with an
accent. I´ve started picking up the accent and love it. This is
shaping up to be a really good cambio.
I´m not going to lie, I felt a little part of myself die when I left
Punta Arenas...it´s a very special place for me. I saw the hand of
God daily down there and know that the purposes of God will be
accomplished up to the extremes of the earth!
Shoutouts to Miladon McClellan who finally wrote me from Sunny
California! Good to hear that all the Latinos within 5 miles want to
marry you! Courtney Beans Sanders what the shrapnel!! Congrats to you
and Lucy Schreyer and Riley....holy shrapnel...marriage. Bahhh...it
makes me laugh. We´re just working our hardest down here to have
people get married so they can get baptized...maybe you can all come
down and teach them how to get married because I obviously have no
clue. :) COngrats, seriously thats just so wonderful! Done Sean, way
to go!
Blob...that was the worst news I´ve heard...I hope it all worked out,
I´ll be praying for you.
Other than that, I´m just trying to learn a whole new sector, whole
new ward, whole new everything....had to relearn how to build a
fire...but we´re working on it! It´s weird to be so close to everyone
and all that jazz.
Katie I love you. and I´m still praying fo ryou if you know what I
mean (slash off the charts tests...I knew it!) James I knew it too.
Mikey, way to go with the Wasatch Back. that is intense....familiy,
if someone can roll the wasatch back, I´m in.
Dad, I love you--you are a phenominal father.
Everyone, I think this letter WINS for being the world´s lamest blog,
but you´ll just have to forgive me...I´m just getting my bearings here
again. Know I love you all...when I remember I have friends and
family, I pray for you....and I am grateful to have you all in my
life!
READ; PRAY; AND GO TO CHURCH (slash temple) AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY. I
don´t know why people let that stuff slide..... probably just because
its easy. Don´t be lazy people. Keep it up! WRITE TO ME!! LOVE LOVE
LOVE LOVE
Hermana Lame Blog Bourne

GOOD-BYE ANTARCTICA!

Fetal positions everybody!

 

Cambios just came out like 5 minutes ago and I found out I´m returning to infancy. Rahue Alto here I come! (In case no one remembers, I started my mission in Rahue Alto in the sector Camino Real...I´m going to Zona Rahue Alto Sector Rahue Alto).  I´m going to be with Hermana Kelley who came to the mission in January and she is just southern belle. At Christmas, all us sisters were in the mission home and prez pulled out her picture and said ¨look who´s coming to the mission¨ we all just died because she´s so beautiful, but then consoled ourselves with the fact that we all get fat out here and one day she will too. :). Nah, it´s all a joke.  But seriously, we are in for some good times.

So the elders called us last week and said ¨Hermana Bourne, you have to be downtown at 930 tomorrow with your first suitcase to send because you are leaving.¨ LAME. I won´t lie...I cried. I can honestly say that I´ve absolutely enjoyed and relished every day I´ve had down here...wind and evil gross dogs and slipping on the ice and menos activos and all. 

 I think one of the greatest joys I´ve felt was yesterday was during church.  During the sacrament, I was praying and then ended and looked up to take the sacrament and who should it be but Davidcito...Melisa´s son.  I hadn´t realized that he was passing the sacrament.  It was his very first time and he did it with such reverence and dignity I just burst into tears.  I just stared at him the rest of the sacrament (not creepily...don´t worry) with disbelief at the joy and love that God has allowed me down here at the end of the world.  I watched him pass the bread and water to Melisa and she just cried with joy.  ah, the simple things. I LOVE this family.

I was sitting at the piano when all this happened and tried to compose myself...but then I saw Alvaro and Laura (the Uruguayans) take the bread and water and just smile and just about died with love.  I looked at every single face in the congregation and knew their names and what was happening in their families and what their worries and hopes are and my body just filled with a love that I don´t think I´ve ever felt before.  I know Heavenly Father loves these people. I know He cares for them in their worries and problems and I know our Savior died for every single one of them.  There are many of them that I think I might do anything for.

Speaking of love. BAPTIZZLE! Alvaro and Laura were baptized this Saturday in a small, reverent, beautiful, and joyful baptism.  Their hyperactive four year old named Franco laughed with childlike joy as he watched his parents get baptized.  Then he shouted ¨I´m going to swin when I´m eight.¨ No wonder we have to become as little children.

Good-bye Straits of Magellan!!!

Shoutouts....ALmost died laughing when I found out that Haven cries every time dad holds her! BAAHH! Don´t feel too bad dad, I make children cry unintentionally down here all the time.... Maybe we just have really creepy faces...no se. 

 Blob, thank you for your hilarious emails! My papito is getting LASER surgery this week so that just makes me happy we´re on the same wavelength. I love hearing from you- you are phenominal..don´t let my family push you and your gigantic head around.  James, thank you for writing me. It seems you are getting better and better every day.  Done Sean, ask my little sister out on a date for pete´s sake!  Tiff, I love you so much. I hope you´re doing well.  Good luck in Europe, it will be the adventure of a lifetime!!

Katie, keep up the amazing life and the awesome grades! Holy shrapnel!  You know my opinion about the whole schpeel...listen to Ashley and mom--ALWAYS...they will never lead you wrong....

Well, I´m headed off now. Love you all!

Hermana Bourne

Sophie and baby Haven miss Emily!!

Lumbering away at the bottom of the earth.....

Well family,

the old addage ¨Modest is Hottest¨ was never truer or purer than it is here in Punta Arenas as a missionary.  Like the Antarctic adventurers of old, we do whatever is necessary to stay warm and dry.  There is no style or pride anymore.  I´m sitting here with two pairs of wool tights over thermals with a fleece vest...my companion decided to wear tights over sweatpants today (figure that one out) and we both are secretly swaddling our feet in plastic bags hidden only by our sensible boots. There is nothing left to the imagination at all and I am frequently reminded of Hagrid when I catch a glimpse of our shadows lumbering down the street.  truely, modest IS hottest.

 

Really great, normal, happy, work-filled week.  IT SNOWED! Happiest feeling ever.  Too bad innocent, beautiful snowflakes are turned to devil ice chunks of death when the Punta wind comes along. Alvaro and Laura (the Uruguayans...best people on earth) are getting baptizzled this Saturday and I just can´t believe sometimes the humility and faith that they have to make all of these changes so fast in their lives.  They stopped smoking the day of Palabra de Sabiduria and left drinking cafe and te and started praying and reading and coming to church all the time....They prayed for the first time in front of us the other day (they had been ¨practicing¨ praying together) and it was just a beautiful experience.  Halsy (ps, where have you been?!) always said it was a blessing to kneel down and pray as a missionary and I second that motion.  To recognize that we might as well be bowed down before a Heavenly Father who is right in front of us...as real as anything...and communicate astounds me sometimes. Prayer is something we can always improve.

 

Katie, Preach My Gospel will change your life.  Make sure you read and study chapter 3 and then 4 and 6 and 5 and 1 and 2 probably in that order.  INCREDIBLE.  To really understand the doctirne of Christ is something very powerful and It has been the greatest blessing to understand it a little more and learn more every day.  It´s also a LOT easier to obey commandments and live the gospel when we understand the reason!  You could use Friday to write to me what you are learning (and it would make a cool study journal) and the other day to do service of some kind.  Seriously Katie, I´m still praying for you and you´ll be great!

 

Well family and friends, shoutouts to luz, jess, mikey, mom and dad and katie.  I think the biggest shout out will go to my dad...he wrote a LETTER and I think it might have surpassed my mothers for the first time ever. Lets all congratulate him! Yay dad!!! Love you. Thanks for the letter. :) Liz and Jess I´m glad you had a great experience. Love you both!

Mike and Baron- off my bed!!

James- Love you- write me!!

Until next week!

 

Hna Bourne

 

 

Advice on serving a mission

****** I have prayed for about 5 months now that you would consider a mission and never fear, I´m not here to pressure you at all to turn in papers or anything I just want to share how I feel about the whole business (obviously your decisions are up to you).  Obviously, I am biased because I´m in the throws of the work.  But let me just say that it is the thing of greatest worth that I have ever done and I´ve never been happier or closer to the Savior Jesus Christ.  Rememer  when you KNEW that Jesus Christ was your Savior and that THIS is right and the ONLY way.  As missionaries, we get to help people find that daily and I think a natural result of really having a testimony is the desire to share it with other people.  I didn´t REALLY consider a mission until I REALLY started getting my own testimony (which was about the same timeish as you...19 or 20). 

Wow, my thoughts won´t be organized at all because my little heart is just screaming GO, GO, GO! Just how when you drew closer to the Savior, you knew HIm better...you understood...so much more is it when you enter the temple and then the mission field. I wrote just this morning in my journal how ashamed I am at the lack of understanding I had before the mission...of the plan of salvation, of the Savior, of other people, of myself.   You learn things out here that will only help you get better and better (eternal progression is the whole point, right?)  I can´t imagine my life without this calling.  I lay in bed last night and felt the beautiful changes that have come over me the last 9 months.  You might be able to find a few of them in my blog, but the rest will hopefully just be manifest in how I live the rest of my life...

 Okay, I could rave all day about how YES is the decision you should make, but it all comes down to you.  I know it was real and I know you grew close to the Savior...I can see it in your face and read it in your letters. Obviously you came to a knowledge of the Savior .  You discovered that He cares and He loves you.  God is able to answer prayers.  But with the whole mission decision will all come down to you. I think Heavenly Father would LOVE all of His daughters to serve in this capacity...but he leaves it to us to decide.  I have found with every companion I´ve had that there was at least some oposition in their decision (boys, TIME was a huge one...they thought it was so long or they couldn´t finish school or stuff like that, family problems, money)  We can rule out family problems and money because we have the best of those worlds.  For you, I bet it will come down to time. (You´ll have all sorts of boys interested liike always...but whatever).  It probably seems like a really long time or you´ll feel like you will miss something that otherwise would´ve happened if you hadn´t have served a mission.  FALSO! Those two are false.  Heavenly Father would never restrict blessings based on a good and righteous decision.  Don´t you worry for one second that you´ll somehow miss something if you decide to go.  and two, it is the shortest time of my life.  

 Basically it all comes down to you.  Meditate, think, study the scriptures, evaluate your own testimony, think of the good you can do and the lives you can change and how this opportunity will never, ever come again in your life...even if you serve with your husband (president holland said it, not me) Think of the joy and changes YOU personally have experienced from having the Savior be such a huge part of your life..think of the stories you will tell your children…think of the increased knowledge you can have of the Savior from serving day alter day in the Spirit, think of the depth of your testimony that comes from the sactifying process of the atonement…and then think of your Father in heaven and what He would have you do.  Of course I´m going to say GO, nothing in my life has meant more to me than this.  I love you so much and thats why I´ve been praying since January for you to think about serving.  I have never found anything of greater worth and thats why I want to share it with you.

 I can´t imagine you having a companion that wouldn´t just absolutely adore you. I know you can work hard and I know you are exceedingly capable in whatever language, country, weather, or situation.  Your mission president would LOVE you and you have a testimony of the Gospel you have the capacity to reach down into people´s low points and give them a high and eternal hope.  Nothing in my life will ever be the same because of this and I´m eternally grateful.  I can´t make the decision for you (although I´d like to :) ), but please just trust me when I say you will be phenominal and will find nothing to do that is of greater worth (except start your own family).  The decision is between you and the Lord (but I´m still going to pray for you).  There´s a part where Paul is preaching in the Bible and he says that he counts his life before his ministry as dung...now I don´t think my life before was dung, but everything is so much more meaningful...so much more beautiful and so much happier.  Vicky (a 19 year old girl we baptized) wrote me today and she expressed her love for me and for God, she has a calling and is preparing to go to the temple to get married to a return missionary.  I almost cried with joy and felt that I would work the rest of my mission without baptizing one more person if she would remain faithful till the end. I know she will.

Well, I could write to you for hours and hours and hours about experiences and people I love with a pure love. I would do anything for some of these people and I KNOW Christ DID do everything for these people.  ****, Christ did it for us, too. 

 Nothing will be of more worth, nothing will bring you greater happiness at this time in your life, and NOTHING will bring you closer to God than to enter the holy temple and then serve with all your might.  All he requires is a worthy heart and willing hands.  You don´t have to be perfect, you don´t have to know everything.  The burning knowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and restored HIS Gospel (the only way back) through the prophet Joseph is what you need.  Pray, pray, fast, pray, study, breath, and pray.  You will know what you should do.  I love you so much ***** and will be overjoyed at whatever decision you make and support you in wherever life takes you (seriously).

Em