E-Mail #37

 

 E-Mail #37

February 21, 2012

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone!!!!

 

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. I sure did! This week has again been a really rough one, lots of ups and downs lately, but it sure is teaching me to rely more on my heavenly father, and keep pushing through. He sure is teaching me a lot out here in the Chillimo. I'm realizing there are a lot of things he is doing to prepare me for my future.....its veryyyy interesting. Last week we had someone who is preparing to be baptized get her last interview from our mission president. She has been waiting sooo long to get her baptism approved. She had to go through the first presidency, and has been waiting 2 years, and that amazing and blessed day comes this Saturday that she will finally be a member of the church! She is so amazing for having so much faith and patience through this. She is great! we are excited to see her baptized this weekend, we know it will be great! 

 

 

On Valentines day we made our members we live with.....the Sperry's....a special valentines dinner date! They do so much for us and are so great, so we wanted to give them something special, we decorated the table with petals, and had a candle and a family picture they had on the table, with a sign on the wall that said happy valentines day. It was so fun!!! They are so cute! It was nice to do something for them! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week we have ran into a few intense moments with people telling us some anti-stuff.....or LIES.....we have gotten heated a few times, but were able to be calm and handle the situation appropriately. Its a struggle sometimes when you are teaching people and you love them and just want them to feel the way you feel about the gospel, and know in their heart that it is true, but they are just being resistant to letting it the spirit touch their hearts. Its breaks my heart, because i just want them to know that we are not here to tell them to be different people, we are here to give them something more, and to bless them so much!!! But they still haven't quite gotten it, i feel like they are slipping, Satan is working double time, but we are fighting just as hard, and are not going to let them go! 

 

Oh and big news of the week, i finally drove the truck!! WOOHOO!!!! Yea, it is awesome!!!! i love driving a truck, and i haven't crashed it or killed anyone, which is pretty nice, they say missionaries do have extra angels....i am pretty sure its true! I just don't even know what else to say about this week. It has just been so full of ups and downs and struggles and overcoming struggles, and tests of faith, and gaining stronger faith! But me and sister Larson decided that since as a church we don't do lent.....not our religion, but we thought we'd do like a sacrifice for the time frame of lent......so i am giving up junk food. Unnecessary snacking, and i am waking up at 545 every morning to exercise....yep, here goes some more weight loss! i am excited! I have been waking up that early for a few days now, and i haven't been as tired as i thought i would be, i think working out helps me keep my energy up through the day, so that's way nice! I love that the Sperry's have good work out equipment, they have a treadmill, and a bike, and we have weights, so its nice! We have been working hard on contacting less active members, some of them we have met have no interest in coming back to church, but we are so thankful that they have been nice as they tell us that. I hate getting the rude rejections from members, because they knew it was true at some point or else they wouldn't have gotten baptized. 

 

 

Yesterday for our pday we went with our member to st. Joseph, which is basically the closest city to our town. It was so fun to go shopping and checking out things. I bought some way cute jewelry, which i am excited to wear! We also went out to lunch, and just had fun dressing up our member for a new outfit for the temple open house. OH speaking of the temple open house, i forgot to mention last week. We found out that ALL the sister missionaries in our mission will be working at the temple open house!! WOOHOO!!!! i am so excited to work at it! it will be so fun and such a great opportunity to meet people, and share the gospel. And i was thinking about it, and because I'll be working at the temple open house, the wonderful, the great FLIPPO family will SO be coming to it, so i want to make sure they come while I'm there so i can SEE THEM AGAIN!!! oh man, i see lots of tears on that day. AND speaking of the flippo family, i got word that Bill....the dad, has a baptism date!!! HE IS GOING TO GET BAPTIZED!!!! SO GREAT!!! and then in a year from that, i will be back in Kansas seeing them sealed.....best day EVER! So pretty much, there has been good news and lots of fun things within this week! 

 

 

wyatt.....i was like...uh, i know this kid named reed wyatt, where does he live....yep.....reed wyatt, of laverkin utah....haha, funny!!! we were laughing so hard once we realized that. So shout out to the wyatt family, i'm serving in the same mission as your girl!! I also got to meet this adorable senior couple that serves at the liberty jail. Every time i meet senior couples, i wish so bad to serve at the VC or the Jail.....they are so great, its like being around your own grandparents all the time! who wouldn't like that as a missionary?!!? 

 

 

I am sure that there is so much more i have to say, but i didn't prepare my email very well because i didn't expect to have time to email today. So i love you all, and hope you are doing well.....and i wouldn't mind getting a few more letters, that would be pretty cool.....maybe one day! just saying.

 

Oh and guess what?!?! my half way day is getting closer SO WEIRD!! So here are the dates I've realized, Today equals EXACTLY 10 months until i  come home. March 1st equals 9 months out, March 11th equals my EXACT half way point, and march 21st equals 9 months until i go home......so march is a CRAZY MONTH!!!! I will try not to think about it, but i am way proud of myself for making it this long, to be honest, i didn't think i would.....so that's pretty AWESOME!!!! I think after the 9 month mark, it might start to get a little weird realizing i am getting closer to going home, but most missionaries say its when you have 5 months left that you have a minor freak out....we will see what happens, i still got time!!! TIME TIME TIME!!!!

:-/

 

Anyway, i sure do love love love you all!!!!

 

Sister Barnum