E-Mail #51
May 30th, 2012
Hello everyone!!
My email is coming to you a little late this week because Monday was a holiday so the library was closed and yesterday we had zone conference in Liberty. So we were there almost all day. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I am so happy to know my family had a fun weekend with my nephews 5th birthday!! Congrats Odin and Leland for turning 5!! I LOVE YOU BOYS!!!
Well i survived transfers, and Sister Larson and i are setting a record.....we are together for another transfer, which equals 4 together, which is very unheard of! But we are both in Chilli for another 6 weeks and we are SO HAPPY about it!!! We love this area and this town. The downer.....pres Keyes has gave us a clear warning not to be too comfortable!!! One or both of us is leaving the end of this transfer. He sent that message loud and clear through an email to sister Larson, and yesterday when he saw us at zone conference the first thing he said was don't get to comfortable, your not going to be there forever. haha. soooo now we are both not very excited to see what comes, but we do know to get LOTS of pictures with members because we haven't done very well at that, and to do as much work as we can!!!
Last week on Monday for PDAY we went to Jamesport the Amish community, well we have some members that live up there and one of them hooked us up with a ride in the Amish buggie with one of her neighbors!! So us and 2 elders went on a buggie ride, it was SUPER FUN!!!! Then we went to all sorts of shops in jamesport. We went to their quilt shop, which is AMAZING!! i am going to try and save up money before i come back to buy me a Amish quilt, they are very expensive, but soooo beautiful!!! They have so many skills, it was fun to look at all the stuff they make out there! It was such a fun day! I'll attach some pictures! Last week after pday was a bit hard because of transfers, we were both full of anxiety and really struggling. It has for sure been one of those weeks of ups and downs. I really hate weeks like that. I hate struggling so much and affecting my companion, and things just getting worse before they get better. Its very interesting because you think I'd get to my year mark and think its going to fast, or i am not ready, but all I've been thinking is how long a year has been and how much i just want to be home already. Its been a real emotional fight. To not just want to give up and be proud of how far i made it but just go home! Thankfully i don't feel that way anymore. But i have quite a bit this last week. I continue to realize that my entire mission is full of struggling. I know missions are not easy, and that everyone struggles. I honestly feel like my struggles have been more than i expected, and its very overwhelming. Its hard not to get down on myself sometimes, i think i should stop struggling at this point, i have been out almost a year, i should be good to go. But that's just not the case. There is ALWAYS ups and downs. Sometimes i just am frustrated by that, which makes the downs harder because i am frustrated that I'm even having down moments. I am so thankful for Sister Larson, she deals with my struggles with so much love and care. I am thankful for her support for me. I hope i can continue to gain better control over my emotions so i can help her more as she gets closer to going home!
Yesterday at zone conference was just amazing!!! It was such an uplifting zone conference. I am so very very thankful for President Keyes he is such an inspired speaker. He shares so much good stuff with us. The theme of conference was obedience. Which was something i for sure needed a reminder about!!! It was such a good way to talk about obedience. President Keyes helped us understand that when we are not obedient, we are breaking covenants. Which is had NEVER looked at it like that. We made promises in the temple, and when we are not obedient we are breaking those promises and because of that we are not staying strong spiritually. It was such a uplifting talk from him. He also talked about how to stay spiritually strong through the mission and gave us four cornerstones for that. 1: Obedience 2: Prayers 3: Scripture Study 4: Sacrament. I had such a strong realization that if i am using those 4 things the way they are meant to support us spiritually that being tired and worn out as a missionary disappears....that strength that you need will be there! it was such a great zone conference! A miracle that happened in our mission that last week president Keyes shared with us to help us understand obedience. A little over a week ago Pres Keyes got a phone call from missionaries who had been in a car accident, one was getting life flighted to a hospital and the other was going by ambulance. They were going to 2 different hospitals. President Keyes told us how he started to pray that somehow they would make it to the same hospital, because if they were at 2 different ones he wouldn't be able to be in both places at once and they both needed a blessing!!! We were all very sad to hear this news. But he told us that somehow as the helicopter was in flight that it got sent to the hospital that the ambulance was going too. President Keyes, the Ambulance, and Helicopter showed up at the same time. He was able to give those elders a blessing immediately. He told us that they were fine, and BOTH elders WALKED out of the hospital the VERY next day!!! They are both still out in the mission, recovering, and still working. The nurse said that she has NEVER seen someone who came in by life flight walk out of the hospital the next day. It was such a confirmation to the blessings of the priesthood. The fact that we are all as missionaries protected and watched over. And that we need to be more obedient!! I am so thankful for zone conference's to help us remember things that we are slacking in, and to continue to improve! President Keyes also gave us the temple standard for the mission!! We get to go 2 times a year. And we are always able to go to a sealing of someone that we taught without it counting toward our 2 visits. So we are way excited to be able to go, hopefully we can go sometime soon. Also we go do a session at the temple the last day in the mission, the morning before we fly home!! WAY EXCITING!!!
Well i that's all i got for this email, mainly because for forgot that it was a new transfer and so half my week is in another planner, that is at home. So i cant remember what to write about. I hope you all know that i love you sooo much! i am so thankful that i have been able to serve for a year(on Friday) It has been THE HARDEST THING, i have EVER DONE!!! I struggled, i struggle....its not easy. Sometimes its not fun! But i am so very thankful for the time i have to serve. Being a missionary has changed my perspective on life. It has helped me to understand where i want to be, and what i need to do to be there. How i want my future family to be, and how i can help them be there. I love you all so much!!
Sister Barnum
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