E-Mail #27

E-Mail #27

December 12th, 2011

Hello everyone!!!

 

 

WELL TO GET RIGHT TO THE BEST NEWS EVER........I'M STILL IN JUNCTION CITY!!!!!!!!!! AND I AM SOOOO HAPPY ABOUT THAT!!! First off, our zone leaders thought it would be funny to send out a prank message first...so they did, and said that elders where coming into the area and we were leaving....i was FREAKING out!!!! So we tried calling them to find out more, and they wouldn't answer....then they sent out the real message, and because they KNEW i was wanting to stay in junction they waited until LAST to tell us if i was staying or not!!! But i am so happy I'm here!!!! So that is the best news of the week. Its been a really good week. I cant even think of details beyond the great, I'm still in junction city news. But this week was a bummer because 2 of our district members went home. Sister Ika and Elder Cox, they are both so great and are seriously going to be missed. Tuesday we had a really great lesson with one of the girls we are teaching that is 17.....she is so great, and we are excited for her to be baptized! We also taught the GREAT CHAR and her boys this week. I love that family SO MUCH!!! I cant wait for them to be baptized. We are going to shoot for January, because her hubby should be home sometime around Christmas. Funny thing, I've only met her husband once when he was home on r&r, but he reminds me SO MUCH of Brandon. Like he dresses like Brandon, kinda looks like Brandon, for sure talks like Brandon....and sits and stands....its weird. so the one time i was around him, it felt so weird because i felt like i was hanging out with my brother! I just think that is even more proof that Char and her family were MEANT to be adopted into my family! haha. Oh, and one more great thing about last week, we had 3 days in a row of AMAZING Mexican food!!! OOOOHHH YUMMMYY!!!! it was great. Sister Fie'eiki and i were so excited about it! it was good food! Oh and for the first time since being a missionary i went to someone else's church! Living Word International Ministries! It was for sure like those christian Church's that sing and dance, and its way loud. But it was way fun, because I've never experienced something like that. The 'bishop' did his preaching after all the singing, and some of the stuff he was saying was true....some was not....but its interesting that even the things that he was saying that are true....the spirit was not there to testify it to us. They gave us (me and sis fie'eiki) pamphlets after, and brochers.....and a cd....and a pen and all that good stuff.....haha, it was funny. I wanted to give them mormon.org cards in return, but i don't think they would have cared for that very much. :) Thursday was a funny day, because every single plan we had made for that day changed like right off the bat. My poor companion who is lactose intolerant....but doesn't care and still eats dairy but suffers for it, was so sick on Thursday. Then at dinner Thursday night our member made this BIG chocolate cake....haha, i wouldn't let her eat it!!! but she took some to go, and ate it for breakfast the next day. hahaha. I would have a hard time giving up dairy also. Saturday was our ward Christmas party, we did a night in Bethlehem. We started off with the video that they showed at the Christmas devotional, and then we all did our night in Bethlehem thing....everyone was dressed up, except us missionaries of course, we were dressed up as missionaries from 2011....the future...haha. But we got our little tokens to get food, and had a blast. Sunday was such a good day!! Church was so good. We got to attend a baptism Sunday evening that was SO SPIRITUAL. I was crying basically the whole time! it was great! We had dinner with our new relief society presidents family, and they are fun, it was fun to get to know them better. And taught a family that is preparing to go to the temple before the husband deploys next year. Its really been a great week, I've enjoyed every day, and am doing my best to keep motivated. I am so excited for Christmas, and we got the approval to SKYPE for Christmas so i CANT WAIT!!! it will be awesome to see you family! My countdown gets smalled and smaller each day! YAY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! I hope you all got my Christmas cards i sent out last week, if you didn't get one, that's because i don't have your address, if you want one....you should write me, so i can send you one....solo diego! :) So i figure i will end my email with a funny story, so since i have been comp. with sister fie'eiki, she has this habit, of abusing me, when members are not looking, like when they turn around, or whatever, she'll hit me, or kick me....or something crazy like that, and every time i go to hit her back, the members will turn around so i cant. Well yesterday evening was GREAT....i think I'm actually starting to get good at being sneaky. So of course the abuse starts with my companion, but i got her back a couple good times. But a funny FAIL on my part, we all sat at the table, it was me and sis fie'eiki and the kids not the parents yet, and i went to kick her.....but the table leg was in the way, so i totally kicked the table.....hahahaha, it was SO FUNNY!!!! Sister fie'eiki got me a good a couple times, but my getting her back was the BEST one of them all. Sundays we usually don't have time to prepare what we will share with the family at dinner, so we just go with the spirit and share whatever the spirit tells us to. Well so we go to share our message with the family, neither of us have something prepared.....so we sit down in the living room with the family and i turn to them and say 'sister fie'eiki has a great scripture she is going to share with us tonight' HAHAHAH!!!! oh i was laughing so hard inside......it was great! the next appointment we had after that she didn't talk very much at all to get me back....but it was still super funny! Missionaries gotta have fun too, even if it means abusing each other behind members backs, so see who can get caught! haha. But that's all I've got for now. I hope you all have a great week, and guess what family?!!? ONE MORE EMAIL....and THEN SKYPE!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Love you all

Sister Barnum!