E-Mail #52 Time Flies

E-Mail #52

June 11th, 2012

Hello everyone!!!

I hope you all have had a good week! I know its been a good week out here in Missouri. Its starting to get warmer and warmer every day! i think summer is officially here! Not sure how i feel about it, but i'm drinking lots of water, and it hasn't been too bad!

This week we ate at a families house and they made authentic german food! man oh man, it was something new thats for sure! It was mashed potatoes, with sourkraut?!(however you spell that) and pinapple bratwost(however you spell that too!!) and then a side was some bratworst with apples fried....it was not that bad! For sure an aquired taste, but not bad at all. The only thing i didn't like was after dinner when i would burp i could tast the sourkraut....super gross! no one likes re-tasting their food! haha.

We had some good appointments this week, we got to see a couple we have been trying to teach, we gave her the book of mormon and her husband was the one who went to his preacher about the book of mormon. Well we talked with her some more about it, and re-emphasized to her that she needs to read it. Well then when we saw her later this week she totally read it!! and she said she is going to re-read it before our next appointment so she remembers it!! WAY AWESOME!!! We also had a really good appointment with the little girls we are teaching. They are sooo cute. They drew us pictures, one said that they love god, the other said missionaries ROCK...haha! sooo cute! Our tuesday night family we have dinner with was fun!! We had spaghetti tacos!!! yep i wrote that right....spaghetti.....TACOS!! and here is the best part...........they were SOOO GOOOD!!!! Its just cooking up some spaghetti, and then having hard taco shells and a bowl of shredded cheese, you put the spaghetti in, the cheese on top and ENJOY....and i did!! i knew my family would not believe me so i took a picture! haha. Whoever came up with that really weird idea was super smart! fun new way to eat spaghetti!

Wednesday was the best night EVER on my mission!!! hands down!!! We had our usual day of visiting people and having district meeting and so forth. The sperrys were out of town, and so they had teresa, who takes care of their son stay at their house while they were out of town. Well we have been slowly trying to share more with teresa, so we went and had dinner with her wednesday night and then after watched the joseph smith movie! it was soooo goood! Then we got to talk for like a hour and a half after the movie, answering questions and so forth. We found out that teresa went a bought a book of a mormon a while ago, and she usually reads the members ensigns when she stays the night to watch their son. And just all sorts of stuff that no one knew she was doing! we were way excited to hear about all this, and now we are even more excited to keep sharing more with her! Its going to be so great! she is a curious person, she just doesnt' show it most the time. haha. But she is just such a sweet person, and so awesome, shes rough on the outside but an angel on the inside! even though she would argue that! It was way cool!

Thursday i had a way cool experience. I was just struggling all day thursday just feeling like i've been a missionary for a year now and i should know more than i do, and i should understand the scriptures better than i do, so forth. I just felt down. Well after our weekly planning sister larson took a nap, so i went upstairs to have lunch and just read my scriptures to try and learn them more. I was just crying to be honest, feeling crappy about not knowing as much as i wish i did. So i just read and read and read. As i was reading i was understanding everything perfectly. It was so cool. Then i just had this spiritual confirmation from Heavenly Father telling me that i know more that i realize i do, and that as i keep reading that i will keep understanding more. I starting crying again, just so thankful for his awareness or me. Knowing how i felt, and knowing because i choose to try and understand them that he could bless me and help me to feel that he is proud of me always trying to understand them more and more. It was just so awesome! I love having experiences like that, i love knowing he knows me and is aware of me. This week i realized that of the re-occuring thing i have learned on my mission over and over....that means so much to me every time i re-learn it. Is that He is aware of me. He really is, he knows how i'm feeling, he knows whats going on, he knows me! I love re-learning that message and having that reminder!

Friday we had dinner with the weed family, who's little girl we just baptized! The funniest thing happened! thier little 7 year old i just LOVE more and more every time i am around her. she is spastic and high energy and all over the place and just sooo loveable! Well their mom was looking for her chapstick and asked her girls if anyone had seen it or took it. Well little eliana the 7 year old, was yelling...no...no NOPE! Then she said, i haven't seen it since earlier today after school when it was in my hand!! hahahahhaha! sister larson and i starting laughing sooo hard!! sister larson turned to eliana and said, you know that means you took it right?! and eliana hops up and is all close to sister larsons face saying...nooo, noooo, i BORRRROWED IT!! hahahahah!!! we were laughing for i think like 10 minutes after that! Oh that little girl cracks me up! We also played the silent game, of course little eliana can only be quiet for so long. But little mayanna who got baptized was doing way good, so i decided to keep playing to see how long this girl can hold out! and she can hollllddd out!! I finally had to break the silence because we(sister Larson) was trying to share a message and mayanna kept getting up and leaving, so i finally broke the silence and told her she had to come sit down and pay attention. haha. But i was super surprised that she could hold out that long, we were quiet for a good 20-30 minutes. Another funny thing that happened is eliana was sick of us being quiet, and so she kept yelling at her sister MIMI....YOU CAN TALK!!! JUST TALK!!! it was just the funniest, she did not like the quiet. it was super funny!

We also had exchanges this weekend. Sister Larson went to Liberty for saturday, and sister Blackham came up to Chilli with me! It was a good exchange, we were super lucky because all week everyone we tried to visit was not home, but saturday EVERYONE we planned on visiting was home! it was wayyy nice! We didn't reach our goals or find anyone new to teach, but we got to talk with a lot of people we had been trying to talk with! so that was way good!

Yesterday didn't have much happen but still good stuff to talk about. First we went to go see jessica who we have been trying to teach. We see her, and she has a ton of family over, and there is always drama going on in her life. But we sit down and talk. We get to talk about the book of mormon, and we go to get jessica another one, and brought one in for her gma and neice. Well as we bring it in, her roomate asked for one, so we gave her one too! so now we have 2 really great potentials to teach hopefully this week, we plan on seeing them tuesday morning, and really pray that they both become new investigators. They are ready to listen and learn, there is just always choas going on, so its hard to teach! But we are going to make it happen!

Also we had dinner with the Deardeuffs. Well last time we were there we found out about this game they like to play, they take clothing line clips, and clip them on the back of people without them knowing so they walk around with them on. This started at girls camp i guess, and the family just continues it. Well they clipped sister larson last time we had dinner and this time they got ME!! i went to the bathroom and i turned around and saw in the mirror i had a clip on my cardigan!! They totally got me!! so the game went on the rest of dinner. but i finally got someone! right as we were leaving i clipped thier daughter who brought the idea home from girls camp! hahah! its way fun. So now our goal is to get them back at church on sunday, clip them and write on the clips happy fathers day! hahaha! Its going to be great!!! haha. good times!! LOVE IT!

Well thats all i got for this week. Its been a good week, had its struggles as every week does. But i have grown and learned from them! i am thankful for learning and growing, i am thankful i get to serve my Heavenly Father and be in this situation of complete growth, and service, and charity, all sorts of good stuff!!! I love it!!! I love you all!!!

Sister Barnum.