E-Mail #70 October...is a pretty sweet month!!!!

E-Mail #70

October 15th, 2012

 

 

Hello dear family, friends.....blog stalkers!!!

 

 

 

Hope you all had a wonderful week!!!

 

 

 

Its been a pretty good week here in odessa! Last monday i got my hair cut, i was just going to get it trimmed....but i went a little crazy and now its chin length.....it actually looks pretty good!! I was surprised how well it turned out, i've never really had my hair that short.

 

 

 

Well last week i went to the good 'ol dentist again....why....because i'm a barnum.....yep, i guess thats just how we roll, always going to the dentist. I did not recieve happy news, but they put me on some antibiotics to hold me over until i come home and get the dental work done when i go home. I got a blessing to help make sure i dont get into some real pain until i go home and can have it fixed. I love blessings and the power of the priesthood!!! Its truely a power from God, no one on earth would be able to have that power if it were not for a loving Heavenly Father who will and has blessed us so much in our lives.

 

 

 

While we were down in Liberty for the dentist appointment we made good use of our time and took Rae who got baptized on my birthday to the Liberty Jail! I seriously love the Liberty Jail, the spirit is so strong there. And it had a whole new meaning after general conference because of President Eyrings talk about the pavilions we put over our heads, since that revelation was recieved in Liberty Jail, they talk about it, and it just was such a spiritual thing, made me thing what pavilion i have put over my head between me and my Father. Always room for improvement right?! Best thing about the spirit, always helping us improve!

 

 

 

We also saw our wonderful Dawn from New Jersey!! She is pretty sweet!! I love talking with her. We told her our first names and so now she always calls us by our first name, it makes me laugh. We have such a great relationship going with her, i love sharing the gospel with people that we have built that friendship with. It makes the conversations so productive and open. We all learn, including us missionaries. I love experiences like that. She still isn't sure how to recoginze the spirit, but it will happen, she will feel it hit her, when the time is right. Obviously Heavenly Father is VERY aware of her, considering the way he sent us to her!!! She's just pretty darn AWESOME!!

 

 

 

We had our zone training this week. I LOVE the new system of zone training!! Its always sooo uplifting. It was to prepare us a lot for the Gladys Knight Performance! Oh man, i hear it went really amazingly good!! I am so excited to hear how the work will just BOOM from her performance!! Im sure it will be amazing!!

 

 

 

Nick got confirmed this week in church! He is such an amazing guy!!! His testimony just makes me feel so humble and blessed to have his influence in my life. Of his dedication to the gospel!! We gave him a framed picture of Jesus Christ to put in his room to help him to remember the promise he has made. His blessing with his confimation was truely amazing. I know he is going to be such a strong pillar to those around him. It will be great!! He is going to be preparing to recieve the preisthood hopefully in 2 weeks. Also Eddi who got baptized last month recieved the preisthood yesterday!! It was so exciting!!! I love the preisthood and i LOVE seeing people progress in the Gospel. It never stops at baptism!! Thats just the beginning, of greater love and understanding!! Greater oportunity to serve others and share the Gospel with them!!

 

 

 

I can not believe how fast my mission is ending!! Its really amazing. The first two months of my mission i think was the longest time of my life, and now i KNOW the last 2 months are going to be gone before i know it. My heart burns to share the gospel with EVERYONE i see, to let them know what i believe and what i know to be true! My time is running short and i want everyone to know that i am a witness of Jesus Christ and i have something special, important and LIFE CHANGING that they NEED TO KNOW!!! I pray that i can do as my father has told me and find those that he still has left for me to find!!! I know there are some out there, i know that Dawn was one of them!! I am grateful for the blessing i recieved this week, to hear the words that my father is pleased with the work i have done and am doing, several times.....its so comforting to know, that he knows that i am imperfect but even with those imperfections that the is pleased. All he wants is me to turn to him, to trust in him, and keep working and he will continue to be pleased with the work i do in his behalf. I love that reminder of what a blessing it is to do this. To be his servant 24/7....to do his work. There is nothing better i could have done with my life over the last 16 months than what i have been doing, and what i will continue to do that last 2 months!! As you pray for me, pray that i will find those that our Father needs ME to find while i am doing his work! I love you all so much and am always so grateful for your love and support for me!! Thank you for everything!!!!

 

 

 

Love Sister Brooke Barnum......a missionary.....a mormon.....a representative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints....A representative of our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!

 

 

p.s.............i didn't really cut my hair to my chin, i just got it trimmed. ;-)

 

 



E-Mail #69 I'm a Mormon...I Know it, I Live it, I LOVE IT!!!!!

E-Mail #69

October 8th, 2012

 

 

 

Hello everyone!!!!

 

 

 

Man wasn't general conference AMAZING?!!??

 

 

 

I love general conference, i always feel so uplifted and edified. I always hear what i need to, and realized what i need to do to be better....ASAP. haha.

 

 

 

This week was a pretty darn good week! I felt like there were LOTS of good miracles this week! The one that was my personal favorite is earlier this week in the night i had a very vivid dream of a name of a person we needed to go visit. Just kept coming into my mind i my dream, and even while asleep i remember thinking, huh...this must be important i should remember this name. Then the next day as we worked all day, that name just kept staying in my mind and in my mind and in my mind. Well finally i said, lets go try this name as one of the places we were going to didn't work out. She see's us walking up to her door and comes out. Its not the lady we were looking for but someone who moved in. As we talked with her about who we are, she gasped and said that the last 2 weeks all she has been thinking is i really need to go back to church. But she has never gone to church here because she is from New Jersey. So because the spirit told me too, i usually dont tell people that i had a dream about them because then i feel like it makes me sound creepy. But i told her that i had a dream that we needed to come see her, and that all i could think about today was coming to this house. So here we are. We set an appointment to come back the next day and visit her. We went back and taught her the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!! It was TRUELY an amazing experience. OH and this lady lives in a like combined house...type deal...well her sister lives next door. She opens her sister door because they are next to each other and tells her to come out. Well i feel like these ladies are family because as soon as the sister came out, the lady we were talking to introduced her and the sister said....'im adopted' I started laughing SO HARD!!! i of course told them about my aunt hopie and my mom and how my mom always says she is adopted when in reality Hope is the one adpoted!! haha. There were lots of other funny and super random comments made that i felt like i was standing with family on that front porch, it was hysterical!!! Even more proof of why Heavenly Father wanted me there. Because i am meant to teach them, they are basically family in everything they do and say!! Who better to share the gospel with than your family ?!

 

 

 

That was the big miracle of this week!!!

 

 

 

Then of course GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!! OH MAN!!!! I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!

 

 

 

I wrote down some of my favorites from conference.

 

 

 

~With FAITH come trials of FAITH and increase in FAITH

~He waits upon us to come to ourselves and to come home to him

~Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not.

~IM A MORMON, I KNOW IT, I LIVE IT, I LOVE IT!!! (now i really wanna have a shirt made that says that just because of her talk! haha)

 

 

 

Those are just a few of general conference highlights.

 

 

 

One of my favorites was President Monsons talk. I mean....if ALL the prophet spoke about for 15-20 minutes was examples of PRAYERS ANSWERED....then WHAT is our Heavenly Father trying to tell us?!!?

 

 

 

Well i know what he was telling me, he was telling me to put my FAITH into ACTION....trust that MY PRAYERS will not only be HEARD, but they WILL BE ANSWERED!!! I have let my prayers just get super lazy lately, i dont know why, i was doing sooo great, for a good time at saying true meaningful prayers. I was so grateful for that reminder from the prophet, from GOD....that our prayers WILL BE HEARD AND THEY WILL BE ANSWERED!!! I can ask anything, ANYTHING....yes it need to be with his will in mind, but even the small things, even a i dont feel pretty today Heavenly Father, will you bless me to have someone give me a compliment? and he hears that.....and he answers that!!! Does that have any ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE?! no....does that have anything to do with me returning home to him??! NO.....does he love me because i am his daughter and he sees what mortal needs i have and desire and he blesses me....YES!!!! Yes he does!!!! I will not, EVER doubt that. I hope that i can do better at staying on top of that as i put my FAITH into ACTION in my prayers. As i not only TRUST that he will bless me with the ETERNAL WORTH things, but also the little things, that seem insignifcant, but they matter! They matter to him, because it matters to us!

 

 

 

We are always improving in life. None of us ever stop. we have to keep improving, which is why i am graterful for conference, that time to feel the spirit and to know what you as an individual need to improve on....sometimes its a list of like 50 things to improve on....okay MOST the time its a list that big. But hey, we got God on our side....so you can NEVER LOSE THAT BATTLE!!!

 

 

 

OH and i almost forgot to talk about our BAPTISM THIS WEEKEND!!! It went sooo good!!! our little miracle Nick, who left the room to pray to know if its true....well he got BAPTIZED!!! The spirit was TRUELY amazing at his baptism!!! Oh man...it went so good. I am so grateful for his example to SO MANY in this ward. He will be a stellar missionary!!!

 

 

 

Here are pictures ENJOY!!!

 

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 



E-Mail #68 Still in ODESSA Missouri!!!

E-Mail #68

October 1st, 2012

 

 

Hello everyone!!!

 

 

 

I hope it has been a pretty darn awesome week for you all. It has been for us. I am still in Odessa, with a new companion sister Peterson, she is 4'10 and a little fireball, she's super funny, and super intense sometimes, i just laugh! haha. Sister Park is now serving in the Independence Visitors Center, so that will be good for her. We had some really good appointments this week. We met with Dillon who was going to get baptized a couple weeks ago but it didn't happen, and he is praying about a new date to get baptized. He is such a great guy. He really has a testimony of the truth of the gospel, he just wants to feel ready, and that is totally understandable! We also had another great appointment with a couple we are teaching, and they are doing pretty awesome. I love teaching people, especially those that we have been teaching for a while. Its so neat to see the changes they make and the spiritual strength that comes into their eyes as they learn of the gospel!

 

 

 

Because my new companion came in from Kansas i had to spend all day in independence Thursday waiting for her. It was a very fun day actually. haha. I watched some church movies in the visitors center, i finished the book of Mormon, i watched ALL the videos in the visitors center. It was pretty fun. haha. I got to be around some other sisters, and some of the elders that were going home were at the VC for about 20 minutes so i hung out and talked with them. I cant believe i only have 1 transfer left. I really pray that i will finish in Odessa. I already have one of my favorite members here lined up to bring me into independence when its time to go home. She's like a sister, she does all the same things our family does, crafts, is a good cook, bakes....she just feels like family, so i want her to bring me to the mission office before i go home. Plus its always nice to finish your mission with people you know. if i move my last 6 weeks, it will be by the time i get to know people i will be leaving. So you all should include in your prayers that i finish my mission in Odessa, although i guess you can wait to start praying for that until the first week of November when President Keyes starts to figure out transfer business. haha.

 

 

 

Friday we went to a WEDDING!!!! We went to Maggi and Eddi's wedding. Eddi is the one that got baptized on Sept 4th. Their wedding was so great!!! It was so fun to be a part of their wedding! Then later in the night we went back to help them clean up, it was fun to help clean up, that way all the family didn't have to worry so much about the cleaning and spend time with the bride and groom.

 

 

 

Saturday we went to the relief society broadcast and it was super awesome. Oh man, i LOVE the new relief society presidency!!! they are truly amazing!!! Oh man the spirit was so strong and i CANT WAIT for general conference!!! oh man it is going to be amazing.

 

 

 

OH and we have another baptism this week!! WOOHOO!!! Nick is getting baptized!!! He is the coolest 13 year old i know, i think him and Joseph smith were best buddies in the spirit world!! He is so excited and so prepared to get baptized and get the priesthood and just keep being amazing!!!! I know i don't have much to say, but i have lots of pictures, so ENJOY!!!

 

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 



 

 

 



E-Mail #67 Week from...Well lets Not Re-Live this one!

E-Mail #67

September 24th, 2012

 

 

Hey everyone!!!

 

 

 

Well last Sunday (a week ago) i thought that i had gone through one of the toughest days ever on my mission.....but i guess that was just Satan saying be prepared because I'm not done throwing stuff your way. Needless to say this week has been one of the toughest emotionally wearing week ever!!! But the week did start off good. We went to warrensburg for a zone pday and it was a BLAST!!! It was so fun to with the missionaries all day. We played sand volleyball and it was fun. Then we played football, well they7 played football and i watched. haha. It was fun though. So that was a great start. We'll just stick with the good stuff and give a short summary of the bad. Also on Wednesday we had a missionary themed mutual night! Which went way awesome! The youth were so great and the spirit was so strong. It was so fun to be in charge of a mutual night and put it all together and give them a boost to do missionary work and prepare to serve missions! It went way awesome! We also had a guy who is preparing to serve a mission in our ward share his testimony which was such a stellar testimony! I am so excited for him to serve! It will be way awesome!!! Amidst some of the worst days there are we were driving in the middle of no-where and came across these signs that I'll attach pictures of for you to REALLY enjoy! Those signs for sure made our day and helped us know that God DOES have a sense of humor and he will put a smile on our face even when things are super hard in missionary life! We also had a fun appointment with a couple that is in their 70's and after talking about prayer and fasting taught the wife how to be gangster and taught her to say 'JK' and 'FO-SHO' hahah. She did wonderful at learning. we will teach her more great stuff soon! We also had some more great appointments with our miracle mini Joseph smith....he is so excited to get baptized and just so sincere. He really loves the church and is so sensitive to the spirit! Its so cool, i wish i was like him at 13.

 

 

 

Well here is some of the stuff that went wrong this week. 1. a recent convert is going through some hard times and instead of letting us support that person, we basically got broken up with, i haven't had much boyfriend experience but i honestly think that break up was the worst of all of them. We were told by that person that they were not coming back to church until things got better....whatever that equals....we don't know. So basically a recent convert saying that they are not coming back to church for a couple weeks....and us praying that Satan does not get his licks in while he can. 2. sadly...but good....but sad our baptism didn't go through. He did not feel ready, which is totally okay. but it was very unexpected and we got that news while we were getting broken up with. 3. ALL of our appointments on Friday fell through, INCLUDING our district meeting, which its just a bad sign when missionaries cancel meeting with other missionaries. 4. i hit my 3 months left mark....which led to an emotional break down with all the above emotional crap going on with it. 5.....i JUST FOUND OUT that I'm coming home 4 days early....LAME!!!

 

 

 

yep....that was the gist of our week. Mind you reading it and even writing it, it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was a very big deal this week on us emotionally. We were just drained and done and cried...A LOT!!!! i mean... A LOT!!!!! So good times....

 

 

 

Bonus of this week, we got our own jar of the FAMOUS Kellogg and sons BBQ sauce.........alright its not famous YET....but he entered it in a HUGE BBQ competition, and he is totally going to win!!! because that sauce is AMAZING!!! AHHHHMAZING!!! Check out his website to order you some, i highly suggest it.... kelloggandsons.com

 

 

 

That was a pretty sweet kick in our week, we have used it as much as we can, we also had a wonderful visit with the great Kellogg family, they are our mom and pop out here, always making sure we are doing good and checking in on us and such! I love having those people around who care for us and take care of us!

 

 

 

This week is transfer week and things are going to be changing a lot!! We had an all sisters conference call, which has never happened since I've been on my mission. And president Keyes was telling us of the changes that are going to happen, not in details but in a sense that there will be alot of changes because of how many sister are coming out to the mission. Of 22 companionship's 17 of them will be in training, which is a big thing! So that's crazy!! i honestly don't know if i will be staying in Odessa, i really hope i am, but both sister park and i are feeling like they are going to white wash the area and pull both of us out. We don't find out until tomorrow night. I pray that they don't send both of us out, but its a good chance. So look forward to next weeks email telling you what happened!!!

 

 

 

I hope that you all have another great week!!! Thank you for all your support and everything you all do for me!!!

 

 

 

p.s. the picture of the cat is the neighbors cat which acts more like a stray cat that i feed, because i am THAT desperate to have a pet!!! haha.

 

 

 

AND everyone should put as much about conference as they can all over their facebook and blogs!!!

 

 

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/invite-others?lang=eng

 

 

LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

 



E-Mail #66 What a Week!!!

E-Mail #66

September 17th, 2012

 

 

Hello everyone!!

 

 

 

I hope you all had another great week! mine has been pretty good! I forgot my planner which i usually use to remember what happened through the week to email about and i don't have a very good memory in missionary life because so much happens every day....so i will try my best to get the good stuff in there.

 

 

 

Well i am going to start with a super funny story! So sister park is not a fan of small spaces....and our bathroom is not big AT ALL....and our bathroom door knob is super retarded and gets stuck every day, you have to twist the knob a couple times to get out EVERY TIME you go in there. Well this week it didn't work twisting it a couple times. I went and was trying to help her get out and she was kinda freaking out...i was laughing, and i couldn't figure it out. so we ended up taking to door knob off and the lock is still stuck in there, so that doesn't do us any good. So i call the elders and ask them to help us figure it out, we ended up putting to door knob back on and it worked just fine, but only the one time when we twisted it for her to get back out. because then it got locked up again, but thankfully the door was open at that point. I got some pictures while she was stuck in there so don't worry! Enjoy the pictures! hahah. It was GREAT!! ha!

 

 

 

Also an update, i decided i like cats....okay i don't really like them still, but i am THAT desperate for a pet and everyone in this area has cats...in junction city EVERYONE had dogs...here EVERYONE has cats....so we have a family that we visit regularly and they have a super cute kitten, me and the kitten are best buds, i hold her every time we go over. She cute because she's small and funny, but they got older and boring....hence...I'm a dog person!

 

 

 

This week we got a lot of pictures so that's what I'm going off to remember. haha. We also went to visit an old man that we visit every now and again, he is very funny, he doesn't believe in the old testament, and he doesn't believe in the 10 commandments....and all sorts of other random stuff, but he does believe that we would have a prophet but somehow doesn't understand when we tell him that WE have a prophet. its very funny, the guy makes me laugh every time we visit him.

 

 

 

This week we went to the Liberty Jail with Curt and Terry, the wonderful amazing couple that we have been teaching for a while! They are so awesome! It was a very spiritual experience at the Liberty Jail, i am so thankful we got to go with them. They also fed us for the 3rd week in a row, they are just so sweet and do so much for us! I truly love them! They also plan on feeding us basically every Saturday! Its just GREAT!

 

 

 

We also have a baptism this week!!!! WOOHOOOO!!!!!! So pictures will be coming with next weeks email! Look forward to that wonderful day! We also were able to finally teach nick, our miracle nick the story from the scriptures come true nick! He re-committed to be baptized on Oct 6th before priesthood session of conference! so that is even more exciting, and we also have someone preparing to be baptized Oct 23rd!!!! So lots of good stuff is going on here in Odessa! I love this area, the work really is amazing!

 

 

 

In our mission we have an amazingly awesome event coming up!!! Gladys Knight is going to be having a concert for missionary work type stuff. She and he choir perform and then she gives her testimony! Everyone in the mission has been talking about it, and other people who have been in this event or seen it said that it is truly amazing and the spirit is off the charts when they perform!!! I am so excited. We already have 2 people we are teaching going and hope to have more go!! I don't know if we(us missionaries) will get to go, because they really want us to have the people we are teaching who we are having go, go with a member who they know. So we will see, i really really hope i get to go, but if not, i am so excited for the blessings that will come from this event!!!

 

 

 

This week we are also doing a missionary focused night at mutual. Sister Park and i are in charge and its going to be pretty darn awesome!!! We have put together some pretty good stuff and have others sharing their testimony and lots of good stuff going on!! i am super excited for that.

 

 

 

So as you can see things are going pretty darn amazing in this area. Lots of blessings!! sister park and i were talking last night about what a blessing it is to have things going the way they are. And as we know there is ALWAYS opposition in ALL things. Yesterday was proof of opposition. We had a very difficult appointment.....if you want to know what happened you can go read Alma chapter 30....and i can promise you everything you read in there is what happened in an appointment with us yesterday. Not fun at all. But i am so happy to know that even with that appointment that i can still declare

 

 

 

THAT I KNOW THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!! I KNOW THAT THIS IS CHRIST CHURCH ON THE EARTH TODAY! I KNOW THAT HIS POWER AND AUTHORITY ARE ON THE EARTH! AND THAT IS THE PRIESTHOOD! I KNOW THE PRIESTHOOD IS REAL AND TRUE! I KNOW THAT WE HAVE A PROPHET A LIVING BREATHING TRUE PROPHET CALLED OF GOD TO LEAD US A GUIDE US! I KNOW THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE WORD OF GOD! I KNOW THAT BY READING IT, IT BRINGS US CLOSER TO OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN AND REALLY HELPS US UNDERSTAND HIS PURPOSE FOR US IN THIS LIFE AND THE BLESSINGS THAT HE HAS FOR US AS WE LIVE ACCORDING TO HIS COMMANDMENTS! I AM BLESSED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER! I AM THANKFUL WE HAVE TEMPLES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE WORLD TO BLESS THE LIVES OF OTHERS TO HAVE THAT SAME KNOWLEDGE AND TO BE SEALED TOGETHER AND TO RETURN TO OUR FATHERS PRESENCE TOGETHER!! THIS IS MY TESTIMONY AND NOTHING ANYONE CAN SAY WILL CHANGE THAT! IN THE NAME OF MY BIG BROTHER, OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, AMEN.

 

Sister Brooke Barnum

 

 

 

 



E-Mail #65 Hello ALLLLLLLL!!!!!

E-Mail #65

September 10th, 2012

 

 

 

Why hello family and friends!!

 

I hope you all have had a wonderful week! I cant believe its already september. I cant believe tomorrow is september 11th. Man, time just flies. We were talking with someone yesterday and talked about how everyone remembers exactly where they were that day 11 years ago!! So crazy! My prayers go out to those that are affected and reminded of that sad day that they lost loved ones! Im sure missionary work in that area BOOMS every year around this time. haha. Hopefully it does anyways, all those people deserve to know the truth of eternal families!!!

 

 

Well we had our baptism last week!!! WOOHOO!!! Edward got baptized! It was such a spiritual baptism! It was great. The best part is they are really good friends with another couple, who the girl is a member and the guy is not. But he has been coming to church since the temple open house!! Well we finally asked him if we could teach him a week ago sunday and this baptism was his first he went to. So we asked him how he liked it and his response was 'I CANT WAIT FOR MINE!' 'I wish i could go do it right now' ............................. yea.................thats what he said!!! Needless to say sister park and i again were completely silent, and had no idea what to say. Finally i asked him if thats something that he really wants....to get baptized. and he said yes! So we asked him to think about what day he would like to get baptized on and we will talk about it at our appointment. Well our appointment later in the week went AMAZING! The spirit was so great!! I was so thankful for it! He is now preparing to be baptized on sept 22nd!!! WOOHOO!! Its going to be such a wonderful baptism! I love seeing miracles!!

 

 

Also this week we taught a women who has also been coming to church since the open house at the temple. We taught her and it was also AMAZING. She told us she didn't feel that she needed to pray about Joseph because she knows he's really a prophet!! Yea....again....complete silence. I've never had anyone tell me no to a prayer because they already knew it was true. haha. Pretty awesome. So she is preparing for baptism on Oct 23rd! woohoo!!

 

 

Miracles are falling from the sky! I am so thankful to be a part of all this! Its pretty awesome! It has been a very great week. We have been able to visit lots of people and talk with them and help them come closer to recieving to gospel.

 

 

Oh and the couple that we teach every week, we taught on saturday and it was such a wonderful spiritual experience!!! We finally were able to share the first lesson, about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Man, the spirit was amazing. It was tough, they had a hard time understanding the apostasy, but it was great! Because the spirit told me to testify of the Book of Mormon and when i did the spirit was sooo strong, it testified so strong to their hearts. You could see it in their spirit and in their countanences that the spirit was telling them what we were saying WAS TRUE!!! SO GREAT!!! I love moments like that as a missionary!!

 

 

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week. I am looking forward to another great week, and another week that brings us closer to general conference! I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE! :) It will be a GREAT WEEK!! But before then, we have more baptisms and they will be GREAT!!!

 

 

Stay tuned for more miracles.....same time, next week!

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 



E-Mail #64 Another Emergency Trip to the Dentist...Why?!?...Because I am a BARNUM!!!!

E-Mail #64

September 4th, 2012

 

 

 

 

Hello Family and Friends!

 

I hope you all have had a great Labor Day weekend. Mine was great, i did missionary work....pretty sweet right!?

 

Well this week was super tough, but super awesome at the same time. I think thats how it ALWAYS is in missionary work! But really its been pretty sweet, and STINKY. Well lets start with the stinky so then we can end with the MIRACLES that have happened!

 

STINKY: Tuesday night i did not sleep AT ALL.....why?!...because i am a BARNUM, and BARNUMS have BAD TEETH....At least they look pretty right?! Well i was up allllll night with a major tooth ache, the longest amount of sleep i got straight was one hour, the rest was just 20 minutes here and there that i would pass out and then wake back up in pain. I kept going into the bathroom to cry so i wouldnt wake up sister park, and i just kept praying that Heavenly Father would provide a way for me to get to the dentist the next day because i couldn't handle this for a couple days until a dentist had an opening. Well Heavenly Father ROCKS, so the next day i got up and started making calls to get to a dentist. THANKFULLY there is a dentist who is a member in Liberty that sister park served in his ward and he had me come in there. So we went in there and guess what?! I SPENT OVER 2 HOURS getting ONE tooth worked on!! YEP...ONE TOOTH....2 HOURS!!! Crazy right. So i told them what tooth it was and they took xrays and told me i already had a root canal on that one, so i was like WELL WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! they said they need to re-treat the root canal. It turned out there was a curve at the end of the root that was super easy to miss and IT was infected!! So he had to drill and dig and drill and dig and DRILL and DIG!! Well this root was super crazy and curved way bad so he got to it, cleaned it out STRAIGHTENED the root and was about to finish up when he was looking at my xrays to make sure it was all fixed and he found a 3rd root in a tooth that NORMALLY only has 2....so then he was like uh-oh we need to look at this, so then he DRILLED and DIG and DRILLED and DIG....realized he couldn't get to the root so treated what he could and sent me on my merry little way. Needless to say it has not stopped hurting. Yesterday i asked for a healing blessing to get help with it, because if it doesn't heal he is going to have to pull the tooth, and i refuse that because it is in smile range and i dont want to smile and have a tooth missing. haha. Anyways, so that was the events of this week as far as the stinky parts go. But i survived and am slowly starting to feel better.

 

Now lets roll onto the MIRACLES!!!!!

 

Well this week we taught a guy that we have been teaching for a while, he has had SEVERAL missionaries and has been coming to church for 6 years since his wife converted, but has not done so himself. Well in our appointment this week he kept saying he wasn't going to argue with us (because he ususally does) and he was being humble and at one point in the lesson he said that he thinks God is going to tap him on the shoulder and say 'this is true' we asked him what he would do and he said 'i'll get baptized' both sister park and i were SHOCKED! Then at the end of our prayer at the end of the appointment we all got up and he said, ' i am going to get my answer this week' again sister park and i SHOCKED!! I shook his hand and said 'THATS FAITH!!' i know you will get your answer!!! so we are way excited to teach him thursday and see if he indeed got his answer! I pray he did because if he didn't oh man, i worry he will be resentful, but i have faith he will get his answer! Who knows after 6 years, this might finally be it, he might get baptized!

 

We also had another really great appointment with a couple we are teaching where the husband is not a member. We read the intro to the Book of Mormon together. It was great to be able to help him understand where it comes from and why its so important. It was such a spiritual appointment and i truely feel that it is his time to join Christs church. I know he is going to get his answer this week also when he prays. I know he will, so i am super excited about our appointment this week with him to see what happened in his prayers.

 

Another miracle, you know how in the Book of Mormon alma the younger is converted by and angel showing up and calling him to repentance. Well and angle didn't show up, but the same thing happened for a member. There is a member who is amazing who has had some personal struggles for a while, well he got a blessing this week and it was AMAZING!!! He is a completely new person. He literally had an experience like alma the younger where he felt Gods presence super strong and he had his struggles literally taken from him. We had dinner with him 2 days after this experience and he shared some super sacred and special things with us from his experience. And let me just say, i was speachless. Both sister park and i were so shocked and amazed to know how strong the spirit can work when it comes to an amazing son of God who i destined for great things! He is a changed person, and so amazing. I am so excited for him and his family and the changed that will happen in their home because of that blessing. Its pretty sweet!

 

Then we had another appointment this week with a couple we have been working with for a very long time. THey are SO AMAZING!! i mean AMAZING!! Its the couple that made our cool t-shirts and all the jazz. Well we went over and hadn't had dinner yet so they ordered us a pizza. We got to talk a lot about the different things. But my favorite part was just how strong the spirit was, you could just feel the presence of our Heavenly Father so STRONG. I mean he loves them so much and he continues to help them get more and more prepared spiritually to accept the Gospel. Well we didn't get to teach them any lesson once again, but it was still super amazing. Because they expressed some questions and concerns and we were able to promise them that what we teach will comfort them, provide peace and answers and as we told them that you could just see the spirit wash over them. I mean, it was just the best ever. I just never want to leave their house. Every time we go over she gives us a glass of lemonade which is always super yummy, they feed us if we are hungry, and this time she gave us money because the last time we left 'we left hungry' according to her even though we didn't she felt bad that she didn't feed us so she gave us money!! i mean this woman is an angel!! I love them so much! They both told us that they really do feel the spirit every time we are in their home. Which is the best compliment ANY missionary could get. It was pretty sweet!

 

ALRIGHTY now....THE MIRACLE....OF MIRACLES!!!

 

Alma 22: 16-18

 

But aaron(missionary) said unto him: If thou desirest this think, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of they sinds and will bow down before GOd, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou recieve the hope which thou desirest

 

And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:

 

O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; wilt thou make theyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that i may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day.....

 

Sunday night our plans fell through. I was not feeling well so i told sister park to follow the spirit on where we need to be because i was too out of it. So we decided to go to a less-actives home who we have been helping a lot lately. We got there and are chatting and then a few minutes later her son (13 years old) shows up. He lives with his grandparents but was coming over to spend the night with his mom. We are all talking and then he said to us, so what is the difference between baptist, christian, catholic, and mormons?! Well sister park and i were like SWEET, lets teach him the restoration. So we teach him. The spirit was super strong the whole time we were teaching, and the boy kept crying, but not totally just like getting emotional. We taught him about joseph smith, and about the role he played in restoring Chirst church to this earth. This young man started crying, and he got up and walked out of the room. We figured he went to go get tissues because he was crying. He was gone for a while, so we just waited for him to come back. He came back and told us he felt much better and then told us he prayed that his mom would stay on the right path and about the question we told him to pray about (if joseph smith really was a prophet) So both me a sister park SHOCKED ask him how he felt and he started CRYING again and told us he knew it was true. He told us he felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off his chest and he knew it was true. So we invited him to get baptized in 2 week and he said YES!!! We continued to teach him about the Book of Mormon and other things and the rest of the lesson all of us were just super emotional, but especially him. He made a comment saying how if he hadn't have come over tonight he would have gone the rest of his life not knowing these things!!! and then he told us that sometimes he will be awake at night and just lay there thinking about those questions. I mean, this was the most amazing miracle i have ever seen. A little experience from the scripture i shared above. We all knelt in prayer before we left and i prayed and as i was praying he continued to just cry and cry. The spirit was amazing. This young man is amazing!!! Sister park and i were so excited the rest of the night. Sometime i cant help but feel how blessed i am to be a missionary. That experience had nothing to do with me, it was all between this young man and his Heavenly Father! We were just there to witness it. I love sharing the Gospel and i LOVE seeing people gain greater knowledge of the truth. Its just super awesome! So he will be getting baptized on sept 22nd!! WOOHOO!!!!!!

 

Also there is baptism tonight!! WOOHOO!!! A guy we have been teaching is getting baptized tonight! I will send some pictures next week of the baptism! It will be GREAT!!!

 

I am so thankful for my knowledge of the truth of this Gospel. I am so thankful to know that Christ's church really is on the earth, with HIS power and HIS authority to bless and watch over so many of HIS brothers and sisters. I know that because of the Savior we can return to our Father in Heaven. I know its a reality, its not just a nice thought, or a great goal, but it is TRUE, and it WILL HAPPEN as we live up to living in his presence here, we will be more than welcome when that day actually comes!!! I love serving as a missionary. I cant believe how fast it has gone, i feel as though i have taken advantage of it, but i am thankful for the time i have left to live it up, to serve whole heartdly and to show others the Light and Truth that comes from HIS GOSPEL!!!

 

Oh and another blessing, Missouri has had some relief from the drought. It rained for 2 days STRAIGHT and then another huge storm last night!! woohoo!!! BLESSINGS!!

(picture of me splashing in the puddle from the rain!)

 

I love you all!!!

 

Have a great week!!

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

 

 

 

E-Mail #63 Another Week Gone By!!!!

E-Mail #63

August 27th, 2012

 

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful week. I had a wonderfully trying week, but i think thats EVERY week of missionary work! Well this week was exciting for Rae, she got her temple recomend!! woohoo! she is also currently in Southern Utah....actually in KANAB! haha, how funny is that. A group from her school is doing volunteer work down there. She was hoping to go to the St. George temple, but probably wont be able to, but she plans on going to the Las Vegas temple! I am so excited for her! Her first time in the temple, and it will be down there. haha. She is just such an amazing person. Her testimony is so strong and she really just lets her light shine to EVERYONE around her. I know that her friends and co-workers and school mates can just see the difference in her. She just glows that girl does! This week we started to teach a couple that is a part-member family. The husband is just so ready for the gospel, he comes every other sunday to church and he has the glow going on! We asked him to let us teach him and he agree'd so this week was the beginning. I know that if he seeks sincerely that he will find out the truth and he will come closer to our Father in Heaven. Its just so exciting to be teaching! We also got to see a person we were teaching and helping progress toward baptism, that like ditched us for over a week, and then we went to see her again and she was totally willing and ready to keep learning. So we are excited to see how things go. Everytime we are ready to just stop trying Heavenly Father gives us enough to say keep going! So we will see what he has in store for this wonder Daughter of his. I know if she really finds out the truth of the Gospel that she will be an amazing member! So i'm sure that is what he has in store for her!

 

 

This week we had zone conference! I LOVE ZONE CONFERENCE! Its just so great to be together as missionaries, to be a strong force together and to feel the spirit so strong! Zone Conference was a lot about taking to things we know and are true and writing it on the table of our heart. So not just being we know the gospel but we will LIVE it because its in our heart. Which was such a great topic for my 2nd to last zone conference because the time i have left i really want to make sure it IS written on my heart. That everything i have learned and continue to learn will go with me when i go home. That i will truely be a better disciple and representative of Jesus Christ. That i really will live his gospel always to the best of my abilities. I am thankful so much for the testimony that i have gained. I wish everyone had the testimony i have ( or better of course) But its just amazing what happens on a mission, its pretty cool. Everyone should serve a mission.

 

 

This weekend we were home all weekend because my comp has been super sick. Which totally stinks! BUT i did read A TON of the Book of Mormon. I started in the beginning and i made it all the way through alma chapter 4. Thats a pretty sweet accomplishment for 2 straight days of being home. Although yesterday i didn't read NEARLY as much as i did saturday. But still, way awesome! At zone conference an elder talked about reading the Book of Mormon in a month. So i am going to take that challenge. I have a pretty good head start, but it will be tough when i dont have the excuse of being home all day so i can read. haha.

 

 

Well im having some problems attaching some pictures. So no love this week as far as that goes. But do know that i love all of you a ton! Have a great week!

 

 

Sister Barnum

 



E-Mail #62 Hello Everyone!!!!

E-Mail #62

August 20th, 2012

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone!!

 

 

Well i hope you all had a great week! I am still in Odessa, thats no surprise. I imagine i am going to finish my mission here. We will see what happens though. A huge tender mercy this transfer is that our new disrict leader is a elder from my last area i served in that i just think is super awesome! So that is way cool! I am very excited about that. This week has been a tough one. My companion had some doctors stuff go on, and found out she has some weird autoimmune disease, which is why she is so sick all the time. So most of the week we were at home, didn't get much done. It was a difficult week because of that. But still a good week. WE were able to get some good teaching done. Someone we are teaching right now is preparing to be baptized on Sept 4th. He is pretty awesome! he is so ready to become a member of this church. We talked with him about the priesthood and i could just tell he is ready to be a priesthood holder! Its been cool to see him grow even though i've only taught him 2 times. But everytime he impresses me and you can tell that he really is recieveing answers to his prayers and knows what is the path for him! Its pretty cool to see. Again, i just love seeing people become converted purely by the spirit! You can tell its just time, thier father in heaven has been helping them get to this point, and we just talk, but the spirit does ALL the work! I love it! This week we also had some time to help one of our members cleaning her house. She is making sooo much progress, it is sooo cool! She is doing great at making her home a place of peace and where the spirit may be. I love it! Friday we were in the house basically allll day. We went to two appointments, where we were told that we are angels in the flesh, which is a pretty nice compliment. and another appointment they told us that they feel the spirit everytime we walk in the door. Complete tender mercy that even though we were in the house bascially all day, it was such a blessing to know that the spirit is with us so strong always. Saturday before the ward party and prophets birthday celebration we had an appointment with someone that has been taught by missionaries for years. It was such a great appointment too. He has lots of concerns, but also loves the church so much, and for sure in his heart has a testimony. But we ended up talking with him about the fact that he prays to know its true with already resistant feelings and not being willing to find out the truth. He started crying as he admitted to that and we suggested that he prays and asks for help to not be resistant to the answers he recieves. It was such a spiritual appointment. I am so thankful for the spirit to help us know how to help him. This man has been taught for so long, and he hasn't joined the church yet for a reason, and we dont know what that is, but God does! So i'm thankful to trust in that. Now to one of the funniest and weirdest appointment of the week. So yesterday afternoon we go to teach the guy that we tracted into a couple weeks ago. So he is like pretty golden right....he's been around church history and met with missionaries before, we find out he has been tracted into by missionaraires several times, so its pretty obvious God keeps sending missionaries his way for a reason. Well we get talking and he is totally the type that wants to fast forward in lessons and act like he knows it all already because he has been around so much of the church and met with missionaries. So it was one of those lessons where i just feel like my brain i fried and he is debating diffrent views on the bible and such. It was pretty frustrating actually, but still really good. Well then we were running late and had to go, so this is the ending conversation. Sis Park: will you pray to ask God if we have something he wants you to hear? Guy: So you're going to bring up james 1:5 right now. Us: noooo, we just want you to pray to know if God wants you to hear something we have to say. Guy: So you're asking me to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Us: nooooo, there is no other motive to us asking you to pray to know if God has something he wants you to learn from us, thats it, thats all! hahahaha, i seriously laughed the rest of the night after that conversation! Good times! Good journal entries! haha. Last night we took rae to the presidents devotional at the Liberty Jail. Thats the first time i've been to one of those! It was way cool. Rae gave her testimony wonderfully and another guy who recently joined the church did also. Then President and Sister Keyes spoke and their testimonies are so wonderful i love hearing from them. THey are such a wonderful boost in my life. This week we have Zone conference and i am so excited for it! Its my 2nd to last zone conference, the next one after this i have to bear my testimony.....ahhhhhh, all missionaries if its their last one have to do that. Thankfully i can just enjoy this one without the nervousness of all that good stuff. So i cant wait for it! I got a pretty sweet package this week

 

 

Package from home $11

Candy $5

Fruit Snacks $2

Bubblewrap PRICELESS!

 

 

who needs a stress ball when you have bubble wrap and i put it to gooood use! haha.

 

 

Well i am so thankful for another week to email home and update you all. I hope you all know i love you tons and am so thankful for all your support for me, i know it has made the world of diffrence. Again the thing i learned this week that continues to remain in my mission is that i really do know that my Father is aware of me, and that he knows me perfectly and he wants to lead me and guide me and bless me, i just have to continue to do whats right and come closer to him always. To be obedient and trust in him. I am so thankful for this knowledge i have gained because i know there were years that i didn't feel like he knew me at all and now i know without any doubt in my mind that he really is aware of me and loves me so completely and so fully that i dont even understand! I love gaining that knowledge. I hope you all have a wonderful week and know that your Father is aware of you too, and that he wants to bless you, you just have to make a step closer to him for him to do it! If we give him an inch he blesses us a mile long! So give him that inch!!!!

 

 

Love you!

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

 

 



E-Mail #61 I Know the Church is True...

E-Mail #61

August 13th, 2012

 

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

I hope you all had a great week! its been a pretty good week out here. We accomplished a lot this week, this is the first time that we accomplished all but like 2 of our goals, which is a way big deal, that like never happens in missionary work. AND we taught like 30 lessons this week and found 6 new people to teach! So its been pretty awesome!

 

Well to start off the week we went on exchanges, and i got to go work at the Visitors Center, for the first time in my mission!!!! It was way exciting to be a missionary at the Visitors Center for a day. A lot of the sisters couldn't help but laugh at me because i was a little confused puppy wandering around, but i had fun! I figure if i never serve in the VC, at least i got to work there once! haha. It was fun, i was with another sister that i actually go home with, she goes home the same day as me. She is a super stellar missionary! She is way strong and it was just awesome to work with her and to get a boost of energy to go to work, and work hard my last 4 months! While on exchanges we had a super awkward appointment, it was pretty funny actually. We talked with this lady and things are going good, so we tell her we like to pray before we teach and so sister S said the prayed and after the lady got like really awkward and told us she had to go back inside and it was just really confusing and really weird and she told us she likes to do her studies on her own and basically got up and walked away, we were both VERY confused, it was pretty strange, and funny.

 

Later this week we got to help out one of the members of our congregation that has some hoarding habits clean out her house some more. She is doing sooo good at getting ride of stuff. We took out 5 bags of clothes last week, and this week we took another bag of cloths, and then 5 or 6 boxes of other random stuff. It was pretty awesome, and she is making good progress. We had a mini missionary with us again this week, she is pretty excited to serve a mission and really contributed a lot to our lessons, it was very nice! We were out working and i had this thought to go to an area and go tracting so i told them (mini missionary and sis. park) so we went and basically EVERYONE who answered the door was nice to us! It was way cool and we got some return appointments. One guy in particular we were pretty excited about has been around members bascially his whole life, he has gone to the hill cumorah pagent, temple square, met with missionaries before, stuff like that! We are way excited to see where things go with that. But i was way excited that i followed that prompting. Its always nice when you know you did what your father wanted you to do. Sometimes i just get to nervous that i'm not acting on the promptings i should be. This week we have finally started to have some rain which is such a hug blessing to the drought out here. The corn fields are all just DEAD, its way sad, but its been good to get some rain. Because of the drought some towns around us have had their water lines BURST! Because the ground is so dry and its shifting because of it, and its causing them to break. So they have this HUGE boil order in affect in a town next to odessa because of all the gunk that go in the water pipes. Its way bad. Some people dont even have water pressure in their house, and cant take a shower or anything. Things are pretty bad, but the last week we have had some rain storms here and there, and we have had lots of overcast weather, and even BETTER it has been like hight 80s low 90's for a WEEK!!!!! SWEEEETTT RELIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love how cool it is, even this morning it was a little chilly! Oh man, such sweet relief. haha. I predict that winter is going to hit early this year. We will see what happens. I dont really know what else to write about. Its been a way good week. Its been cool to follow the spirit. Sister Park and i are trying to work on becoming more concecrated on the work, and making our prayers more sincere. So we pray individually for those we are teaching and wait to recieve inspiration on how to help them come closer to their Father in Heaven. Its been way awesome to recieve such great revelation on how to help those we are teaching. Makes our prayers super long, but what better thing to do?! Its been pretty awesome. Well i hope you all know that i love you lots. I am so thankful for all the support you all give me and cheer me on as i do my work as a missionary. Its been such an amazing experience. I cant believe how fast it is just going, its already the middle of august...time just flies. I know i will be home before i know it. I just pray that i can accomplish all that my Father needs me to before i leave!

 

 

I am so thankful for this week for the prompting i have recieved and acted on. For coming closer to my Father in Heaven as i do his work and for being led to his children that need to know he really is aware of them. I love doing missionary work! WAY AWESOME STUFF!!! I love you all!!! Have another GREAT WEEK!

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

E-Mail #60 The Book is Blue, the Church is True, God Loves You and I do TOO!!!

E-Mail #60

August 6th, 2012

 

 

 

Hello all!!

 

 

Well i hope you all have had a wonderful week! I know its been a pretty good week out here! This last week we took one of our investigators to the visitors center. It was actually pretty awesome because we had Rae, who just got baptized take us. Since she is a member now she can give us rides and she loves it! Well while we were at the VC she just blew our socks off, as we were taking the tour and answering questions about the saints and the trials they faced, our wonderful recent convert Rae makes a comment about how in the Book of Mormon it talks about how when the restoration happens that there will be many trials for the people, and goes on about that stuff. YEA!!! It was way awesome! She has such a strong testimony and she just GLOWS every time we see her, you can just feel the spirit and see how strong she feels about the church. Its way cool! Then the next day we were going to do service and dropped our groceries off at her house, and invited her to come do service with us, so she did. It was just fun to spend so much time with her! Seeing her strong testimony has just made mine even more strong. Its just way fun to see someone convert and to know that i really didn't have any part in it....she was just ready. Its probably the best feeling ever to know that you (as a missionary) didn't have any ROLE in this persons conversion, because they are THAT awesome and spiritually prepared! haha. This weekend in Odessa was one of the biggest Odessa events, puddle jumpers....its like peach days...but out here they call it puddle jumpers! It was quiet the couple days. They have all sorts of fun events, one of them that we helped our investigator prepare for was the bedraces. They have people put beds on wheels and race them. One person sitting in the bed and 4 pushing as they race down the road. We were going to go watch it but we had some appointments we had to go to. So that was a bummer, but still sounded like it was awesome, we hope to see pictures!

 

 

This week i decided to throw a surprise birthday party for my companion since she was so bummed about her birthday in July and how it was lame. So i locked her in our bedroom and set up the party. It was allll glow in the dark stuff. Swords, bracelets, rings, necklaces, and BALLOONS!! that's right, did you know they make LED balloons that glow in the dark?! They are pretty cool. So we partied to some popcorn bopping and just had lots of fun! I think she really enjoyed it, I'll attach some pictures.

 

 

This weekend we were eating at Wendy's which is in like the biggest truck stop i have ever seen. Well there was a bus of special needs people that were there eating also. As sister park got her food and came to sit down one of the guys stopped her and said hey i just want you to know that i think you are a beautiful lady. hee hee, well then after we were done eating and walking away he was yelling at us again, and was like HEY..HEY..HEY, so i turned around and he came up to me and said, i just want you to know i told her she was a beautiful lady and i think you are too. and then gave me a side hug! haha, it was so adorable. He was super funny and nice.

 

 

On Sunday we went down to a area in our ward that is in the middle of no where, but there were some people out there that had been given to us as referals and they are awesome! First we met a single mom with 2 kids that has been looking for a church she feels she belongs too. So we talked with her a ton and it was way cool. I am super excited to teach them some more and i think they really felt the spirit and noticed a difference in us being there. So i will keep you updated on how that goes. Then another one was a teenage girl 16 and we talked with her, and taught her about the restoration and invited her to be baptized and she said YES! Way cool! and she is going to prepare to get baptized on Sept 1st! So it was a way cool night, full of awesomeness!

 

 

Other than that cool stuff this week hasn't been very eventful. Its been good though. I am thankful for the time to serve her and to see the changes so many people are making already. Oh well there was one other thing that happened this week. We have been praying a lot about Eric who was supposed to get baptized this coming Saturday. We just kept feeling unsettled about him getting baptized and kinda felt like he didn't need to get baptized to be able to return to our father. So we prayed about it, and asked HF to provide an answer for us, how we can help him progress, or if he is not to get baptized, how do we tell him he is not. Well the next day we got a call from him telling us that he decided not to get baptized. It was still very sad, but sister park and i couldn't object because we knew that was the answer we needed. He still is a great kid, and maybe one day he will be ready to be baptized, but right now is not the time for him. So sometimes, HF answers our prayers in unexpected ways. But the answers are what needed to happen.

 

 

I hope you all have a great week!

 

 

I wouldn't mind if i got some letters in the mail, that'd be pretty cool! Solo Digo.

 

 

Sister Barnum

 

 

 

 

 

E-Mail #59 Baptism its our first covenant....being sealed another eternal covenant....my birthday, celebrated through eternity because i'm AWESOME!

E-Mail #59

July 30th, 2012

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone!!!

 

 

Hope you all have had a wonderful week, i sure have!!! ITS BEEN GREAT!!! well mostly this weekend has been great, everything else was average!! But a great weekend is all i ask for!

 

 

This week we got to help a less-active who has some hoarder tendencies clean her house, we are doing it phase by phase, we started with her living room, and made a great start, and she has continued to clean after we left which is even better! Also she is reading the Book of Mormon the first time through and racing me and sister park, she keeps pulling ahead of us, but we keep catching up! :) Its nice to help her get through it, she is continuing to get stronger and stronger spiritually! So that's always fun to see.

 

 

This week we also had interviews, i love meeting with our mission president, he is truly an inspired individual!! I was struggling the last week and asked him for a blessing and it was such a wonderful blessing!! I am so thankful for the priesthood that gives us so much comfort and enables us to stay strong and keep going. In the blessing i came to realize what my struggles have been since being here and its all related to anxiety! man that can get annoying, i just hadn't realized i was having so much anxiety, but during the blessing my father gave me the strength i need to keep going through the rest of my mission and to have that control over my anxiety. I have found it really interesting to realize how much anxiety i have had my whole life, i just never realized that was what was going on. So its pretty cool to continue to gain that self awareness to help me through those anxiety filled moments. But i have felt amazing, and hardly any anxiety since that blessing, its just so wonderful! I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD!!!

 

 

 

Friday we had another mini missionary with us, which was fun. We also Friday had such a fun experience, we went to contact a part member family, the guy had voiced that he wanted to come back to church, we went to visit them and had such a wonderful spiritual experience! i love when that happens, when you know that our Father in Heaven just wants them to come closer to him, and he sends us as his way of reaching out to his children! I LOVE IT!! We also went and saw a couple we have been teaching, the Carters! They are super awesome, the husband is a graphic designer and made us t-shirts! I will send a picture of the shirts! He is so cool!!! Oh and his wife made a comment about how she is reading the bible, and then all the sudden said, and the Book of Mormon too! Both me and sister Parks mouth dropped open for i think AT LEAST 1 minute! We were so shocked, we both wanted to freatk out, but we kept calm and talked with her about it! This couple is so awesome, they are opening up and aksing questions and its just cool to see their knowledge grow and grow!
 

 

 

Now lets get to the best weekend ever!!!

 

 

SATURDAY!!!! We got up, i opened my way awesome birthday present that you all sent me! it was so fun to open all those balloons! Thank you for all your wonderful notes, i glued them in my journal! Then we were off to the temple!!!!! WOOHOO!! I was so excited to be in the temple, man it was such a wonderful experience, to be in there especially with all my junction city family! The dillons were just glowing the entire time they were in the temple! We also got to spend sooo much time in the celestial room. Between the endowment and sealing we all just spend time in the celestial room talking and oh man, it was just great to see all of them in their beautiful temple clothing, i for a moment pictured what it would be like in heaven, all of us together again, so happy to see each other, socializing, and hugging and catching up! Oh man, i know thats what it will be like! Then during their sealing, that is when i cried and cried. The spirit was so strong, to see them make that bond, to see how much they love each other. And to realize one day, thats where i will be! It was my first sealing ever to see and it was just sooo great! Then when their little girl came in, in her beautiful white dress, she was so darn cute!!! What a special day for them! Then it was lots of hugs goodbye and rushing back to odessa for a BAPTISM!!!!!
 

 

 

Oh man and the baptism, was super amazing!! I seriously love Rae, she is so wonderful, she is a very special daughter of God. She started to grow closer to him spiritually way before we even came into the picture, she started to make those changes way before we taught her, and it was just icing on the cake to see her make that convenant with her Father!! It was a very spiritual baptism. After we had some burgers and cupcakes(for my birthday) and blonde brownies(for sis parks late birthday) It was so fun, i have never been so full in my life, i think i was going to explode!! But in a good way. haha.

 

 

SUNDAY!!! Rae got confirmed a member of the chuch, again another glowing experience! She is just so amazing! I love seeing her make those changes. Then we went to an appointment with a woman we have been teaching her name is Julia, at first when we met her we didn't think things would go that far, but every time we met things got better and better. Well yesterday we were having such a wonderful spiritual appointment with her as we talked about the plan of salvation. As the spirit was so strong sister park knew we needed to invite her to be baptized, and she said YES, and is working toward the first weekend in september to be baptized!!! It was such a shocker, i love those moment when you know that Heavenly Father had a plan, and you didn't know what it was, but you just followed the spirit to do what he needed you to do! Julia has learned from a lot of missionaries and now its her time to make those changes and that promise with her Father in Heaven. Oh man! It was just so great to be with her and to have that experience!!

 

 

So yea, that is the highlights of the weekend of AWESOMENESS!!!! Its been such a great weekend and i am so thankful for the spirit being so strong this weekend! I am thankful to help others progress toward baptism! I love doing the lords work! Its such a awesome thing to do!!! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

 

 

LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

 

Sis. Barnum