Sister Brooke Barnum: E-Mail #24

E-Mail #24

November 14th, 2011

Hello family and friends!

I hope you all had another great week. I had a pretty good week myself. Last week i forgot to tell you all that i shared my testimony in Spanish in our Spanish branch. I used sister dent's books before she left and wrote down my testimony in Spanish, and then last week in testimony meeting i shared my testimony. It was super fun, even though I'm sure i sounded WHITE....but that's okay, i am! Last p-day me and sister fie'eiki got our hair cut. I cut mine back to shoulder length. Which is nice, because now i actually feel motivated to do my hair and look pretty, rather than just pull it back, like i usually do everyday!! This week we didn't have as big of an investigator finding week, but its been a great week because we followed up on all the people we met last week and committed 3 of them for a baptismal date, and 2 others are praying about being baptized. So even though we didn't find people it was still a GREAT WEEK!!!! It was so fun to challenge so many people for baptism. Man i haven't done that nearly as much as i should as a missionary. But it is even better when you know the spirit is saying they are so ready for baptism INVITE THEM!! Sister Fie'eiki and i worked really well together when it came to doing that. One of us would testify and then the other would invite them for baptism. It is so great to know that what we are doing is giving others the opportunity to take the first step to eternal life with their father in heaven. We are not just crazy Mormons who like to convert people, or tell people they need to be baptized.....we are letting others have that opportunity today on this earth to enjoy the spirit and to prepare to return with god!! WOOHOO!! missionary work rocks! lol. wow....way to much excitement, i know. Another surprising thing this last week. IT SNOWED!!!! IT SNOWED!!!! HOLY DANG IT SNOWED!!!! yea.....and it stuck, but it was melted by the next day. So everyone we saw after that was like talking to me about winter stuff and how I'm from southern Utah and we don't have winters there, not like Kansas anyways. And i had to inform many people our winters are a lot like what we saw the other day, snow, its sticks, it melts by the next day. and every person i said that too LAUGHED and said....oh its just the beginning, JUST WAIT!!! So here goes nothing, winter is coming if i like it or NOT!!! Its okay though, i like winters, I'm not sure how much i will like WORKING in the winter, but i like winter. Lots of HOT CHOCOLATE! This week ahead of us is going to be one eventful week. We have p-day today, district meeting tomorrow, interviews Wednesday with our mission president, Wednesday afternoon we are traveling to GREAT BEND KANSAS, and will work with the sisters out there for a day, then we will travel to HAYS KANSAS and work with the sisters there for a day, and then be back to junction city by Saturday. So this week is going to FLY BY!!! We are calling ourselves KANSAS TRAVELERS. Because this transfer we will also drive out to Lawrence and do exchanges out there to. So we are all over the place. But it will be a BLAST! ROAD TRIP! This week we saw the wonderful and amazing Flippo family. I cant remember if I've talked about them as much as i should. But we have been teaching Char for a while now, and she is going to get baptized when her husband returns from deployment and we are teaching her boys and they are basically the most amazing family EVER. I love char with all of my heart, and her boys are so DARN CUTE!! they come to every activity, make it to church every Sunday. No question asked, they are great! I am so thankful that i met this family, and i will be friends with them my entire life. I feel like i am in junction so that i can teach her! I hope that i stay here until January so i can see her baptism and it will be great! I love meeting people, teaching people and knowing you will be friends with them for the rest of your life!! The flippo's are AMAZING!! HANDS DOWN! :) Saturday we had a Spanish branch party for thanksgiving, and it was a blast. We were there from like 5 to 9 and we had so much fun. I love the Spanish branch, they are such spicy and fun people to be around, they love to tease us because we cant speak Spanish, but hey, we are learning little things and it is fun! We took some pictures and were having fun. I'll have to attach one of those pictures for you guys. We also yesterday taught one of our Spanish investigators. We haven't really been able to teach him, but finally someone from the Spanish branch came, and he taught him all the stuff because he is the only one that could speak Spanish, but we are excited because you could totally feel the spirit, and know he was feeling it too! next week we are going to teach and our team up with translate, and we are going to invite for baptism, because he is so ready for that! Its been such a great week, I am so excited for all the people we are teaching. OH SHANIQUA i need to tell you all about SHANIQUAshaniqua well guess what....WE ARE TEACHING A GIRL NAMED SHANIQUA!!! I told her we are twins. She is hysterical. We took her to a baptism in Manhattan, she is preparing to be baptized in December, she went to church yesterday, she is great!!! I LOVE HER!!! So man, i am going to need to attach lots of pictures today for you all to see who i am talking about, and what i am talking about and all sorts of good things. This week when i see president keyes i am going to ask him to keep me here for Christmas. And we already have a family that claimed us for Christmas dinner, i asked if they have Skype and if i could use it to talk to my family, and i warned them that there would be tears, they said that it is totally fine if i cry, as long as my family is okay with hearing them yell at me and say 'suck it up sister!!!' HAHAH. They are a great family, i am excited to spend Christmas with them!! I hope the lord is in agreeance with that! lol.

Well i don't know what else to add. I hope you are all doing good. I miss you all. Talk to you next week and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! (a week early) lol.

oh wait, i have to tell you this really cute story about this kid we met at the branch party. Sooo, this non-member family came, and they are SO CUTE. A mom and her 4 children, faith, hope, Thomas, and john. They are all SO CUTE! i should have got a picture with all of them, but hopefully i see them again. Well i will because we are going to talk to their mom and answer some questions she has, but we invited her to church and she came and her children came, and she said she was just going to stay the first hour, but she stayed both hours. and so we were in primary and this adorable kid Thomas, who is in the picture, with blue hair. we are giving out treats for them being good, and they ask him if he wants some, and he said 'no, I'm on a diet'......'i have a cavity' HAHAH!!! ISN'T THAT THEEEE CUTEST THING EVER?!?! We were all giggling, he is so cute, the day before at the party i asked him to be my best friend, and of course he said YES, then we asked him if he would help guard the food on the table until it was time to eat, because people kept grabbing snacks....it was sooo funny, he took that job SO SERIOUS, any time a kid was close to the table he was all up in their space, it was hysterical. He is super cute, and so is his sisters and brother. Anyways. that's all for now!